Together they have enabled
me to sunder the silences of natural realms long uncommunicative.
The telltale charts of my crescograph {FN8-2} are evidence for
the most skeptical that plants have a sensitive nervous system and
a varied emotional life. Love, hate, joy, fear, pleasure, pain,
excitability, stupor, and countless appropriate responses to stimuli
are as universal in plants as in animals."
"The unique throb of life in all creation could seem only poetic
imagery before your advent, Professor! A saint I once knew would
never pluck flowers. 'Shall I rob the rosebush of its pride in
beauty? Shall I cruelly affront its dignity by my rude divestment?'
His sympathetic words are verified literally through your discoveries!"
"The poet is intimate with truth, while the scientist approaches
awkwardly. Come someday to my laboratory and see the unequivocable
testimony of the crescograph."
Gratefully I accepted the invitation, and took my departure. I
heard later that the botanist had left Presidency College, and was
planning a research center in Calcutta.
When the Bose Institute was opened, I attended the dedicatory
services. Enthusiastic hundreds strolled over the premises. I was
charmed with the artistry and spiritual symbolism of the new home
of science. Its front gate, I noted, was a centuried relic from
a distant shrine. Behind the lotus {FN8-3} fountain, a sculptured
female figure with a torch conveyed the Indian respect for woman
as the immortal light-bearer.
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