maintain such specimens in the
rhythmic condition, constant stimulation from outside is necessary.
Plants of this type are extremely dependent on outside influences, and
when such sources of stimulus are removed, they speedily come to an
inglorious stop. _Kamranga_ or _Averrhoa_ is an example of this kind. In
the second type of automatic plant activity I find that long continued
storage is required, before an overflow can begin. But in this case, the
spontaneous outburst is persistent and of long duration, even when the
plant is deprived of any immediately exciting cause. These, therefore,
are not so obviously dependent as the others on the sunshine of the
world. Our telegraph-plant, _Desmodium_ or _Bon charal_, is an example
of this.

It appears to me that we have here a suggestive parallel to certain
phenomena with which this audience will surely prove more familiar than
I, namely, the facts of literary inspiration. For the attainment of this
exalted condition, also, is it not necessary to have previous storage,
with a consequent bubbling overflow? Certain indications incline me to
suspect that perhaps in this also we have an example of so-called
spontaneity, or automatic responsiveness. If this be so, aspirants, to
the condition might well be asked to decide in whose footsteps they will
choose to tread--those of _Kamranga_, with its dependence on outside
influences, and inevitably ephemeral activity, or those of _Bon charal_,
with its characteristic of patient long enduring accumulation of forces,
to find uninterrupted and sustained expression.

THE PLANT'S RESPONSE TO THE SHOCK OF DEATH

A time comes when, after one answer to a supreme shock, there is a
sudden end of the plant's power to give any response. This supreme shock
is the shock of death. Even in this crisis, there is no immediate change
in the placid appearance of the plant. Drooping and withering are events
that occur long after death itself. How does the plant then, give this
last answer? In man, at the critical moment, a spasm passes through the
whole body, and similarly in the plant, I find that a great contractile
spasm takes place. This is accompanied by an electrical spasm also. In
the script of the Morograph, or Death recorder, the line that up to this
point was being drawn, becomes suddenly reversed, and then ends. This is
the last answer of the plant.

These are mute companions, silently, growing beside our door, have now
told us the tale o