[Illustration: ALLIES OF THE DESERT ARM THEMSELVES WITH PRICKLES AND THORNS AGAINST THEIR ANIMAL ENEMIES] To a person on a country road, the wayside trees and flowers are too often mere happenings or creations. Their ways are so quiet and undemonstrative, that, if he has never been taught differently, he rarely thinks of classifying them as independent, free-acting beings. The fact that they are anchored to the soil seems to remove them from the realm of self-willed creation. Yet why should it? Are fishes not doomed to pass all their days in the chemical combination of hydrogen and oxygen we call water? Does not the delicate Canary die if the air surrounding it goes below a certain temperature? The fact is that many plants exhibit all the elemental qualities of human intelligence and also have vague psychic expressions of their own which we only understand in a very limited way. What causes the radicle or root of the smallest sprouting seedling always to grow down and the plumule or stem always to grow up? It cannot be gravity because that great earth pull would affect both parts equally. This same radicle, when it has developed into a full-fledged root, feels and pushes its way through the earth in a marvellous fashion searching out water and traveling around obstructions with unerring exactness. The slightest pressure will serve to deflect it; aerial roots have been observed to avoid obstacles without actually coming in contact with them. The plants use their roots to feel their way to moisture and nourishment just as a man would feel his way with his hands. The great Darwin, himself, wrote many years ago: “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed, and having the power of directing the movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals.” In the same way, plant tendrils seek and search out the best supports, after the manner of animal tentacles. When fully wound around a prop, they drag the body of the plant up after them. Practically all plants show a full knowledge of the importance of sunlight to their life processes. They usually strain all their energies and exert all their ingenuity in an effort to display as great a leaf surface as possible. That this action is not always purely instinctive is indicated by the response of certain carnivorous plants to light. Having learned that success in capturing their prey depends upon a static position of their leaves, they make no effort to adjust their parts to strong or concentrated light. This is clearly a case of intelligent adjustment to environment. It is interesting to note that the plant cells which are sensitive to light often become tired or partially blinded just like the retina of an animal eye. Darwin found that plants kept in darkness were much more responsive to light than those which dwelt habitually in the sunshine.