"
The effect of the chloroform discontinued all growth; the antidote
was revivifying. The evolutionary gestures on the screen held me
more raptly than a "movie" plot. My companion (here in the role
of villain) thrust a sharp instrument through a part of the fern;
pain was indicated by spasmodic flutters. When he passed a razor
partially through the stem, the shadow was violently agitated, then
stilled itself with the final punctuation of death.
"By first chloroforming a huge tree, I achieved a successful
transplantation. Usually, such monarchs of the forest die very
quickly after being moved." Jagadis smiled happily as he recounted
the life-saving maneuver. "Graphs of my delicate apparatus have
proved that trees possess a circulatory system; their sap movements
correspond to the blood pressure of animal bodies. The ascent of
sap is not explicable on the mechanical grounds ordinarily advanced,
such as capillary attraction. The phenomenon has been solved through
the crescograph as the activity of living cells. Peristaltic waves
issue from a cylindrical tube which extends down a tree and serves
as an actual heart! The more deeply we perceive, the more striking
becomes the evidence that a uniform plan links every form in manifold
nature."
The great scientist pointed to another Bose instrument.
"I will show you experiments on a piece of tin. The life-force in
metals responds adversely or beneficially to stimuli.
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