e sponge whichever way you will,
they will take the same direction."

"It has been concluded," remarked Becker, "from these incontestable
facts, that plants are not devoid of sensibility; and, in fact, when
we behold them lying down at sunset as if dead, and come to life again
next morning, we are forced to recognise a degree of irritability in
the vegetable organs which very closely resemble those of the animal
economy."

"In future," said Jack, "I shall take care not to tread upon a weed,
lost, being hurt, it should scream."

"On the other hand, they have not been found to possess any other sign
of this supposed sensibility. All their other functions seem perfectly
mechanical."

"Ah then, father," exclaimed Jack, "you are a believer in my system!"

"We make them grow and destroy them, without observing anything
analogous to the sensation we feel in rearing, wounding, or killing an
animal."

"But the fly-trap, father, what of that?"

"It is no exception. The fly-trap seizes any small body that touches
it, as well as an insect, and with the same tenacity; hence, we may
readily conclude that these actions, so apparently spontaneous, are in
reality nothing more than remarkable developments of the laws of
irritability peculiar to plants."

"It does not, then, spring from a family feud, as Jack supposed?"
remarked Willis.

"Besides," continued Becker, "if plants really existed, possessing
what is understood by the term sensation, they would be animals."

"For a like reason, animals without sensation would be plants."

"Evidently. Moreover, the transition from vegetable to animal life is
almost imperceptible, so much so, that polypi, such as corals and
sponges, were for a long time supposed to be marine plants."

"And what are they?" inquired Willis.

"Insects that live in communities that form a multitude of contiguous
cells; some of these are begun at the bottom of the sea and
accumulated perpendicularly, one layer being continually deposited
over another till the surface is reached."

"Then the coral reefs, that render navigation so perilous in unknown
seas, are the work of insects?"

"Exactly so, Willis."

"Might they not as well consist of multitudes of insects piled heaps
upon heaps?"

"It is in a great measure as you say, Willis."

"Not I--I do not say it--quite the contrary."

"Well, Willis, you are at liberty to believe it or not, as you think
proper."

"I hope so; we shall, therefore, pu