ANOTHER NATURE SECRET WON

Evening Star, Issue 15032, 14 November 1912, Page 7

ANOTHER NATURE SECRET WON

. “Condemned on the testimony of a scarlet geranium may become one of the formulas ot our law courts fsays the ‘ New York World’). After long" experimenting and study, Professor Gottlieb Haberlandt, of the Botanic Institute of Gratz, in Styria, declares that plants, the word taken in its widest sense and including trees, can see. The professor says that his observations have been confirmed by Dr Nuiall, of London and Dr Harold Wagner, He has succeeded’, through photography and the use of the microscope, in reproducing the images reflected on the visual organs of plants. The images included objects at different distances, and even persons and houses. Plants may, ho says, be classed with the inferior animals in this respect. , He informs us that the epidermic cells of a .plant are, in fact, just so many convex lensp as perfect as the facets of an insect’s eye. In the common house fly there are over 4,000 such facets, while the butterfly boasts of 17,000 eyes. JE-aoh left cellule of"a plant is unalagons to the facet of the fly’s eye, which acts as another eye, says Professor Haberlandt, and in the same way reflects an infinite number of objects on the visual organ. —The Eyes of a Forest.— A forest, spreading its myriad leaves to the. sunshine, reflects in ibis way the sunbeams in .its multitude of mirrors, each epidermic cell forming a separate lens. We arc still so ignorant of animal, plant, and insect life, (because we do not understand their language) that we fancy the plant, like the insect, is not conscious of what it sees; but that is probably a discovery for the future. At. present we, are farced to Uccopt the theory that they are not conscious. But that they do see Professor Haberlandt says ho has satisfactorily proved. . , The eyes of plants appear different from the eyes of insects in that ihev have no coloring mutter, though it is not" yet determined. The professor is continuing his experiments, and'he expects to make further interesting and surprising announcements. - , ■That plants and trees have eyes is undoubtedly- a . proof that -all -natural .life is linked in opo long chain. It suggests many strange thoughts- “What tho pot plant saw ’’ may become evidence in a court of law as .convincing as a gramophone record. So : the burglar, murderer, or other wringdoers in the future will find it necessary not only-to wear gloves, to destroy kodaks and vocal /recording instruments,. but to remove all plants before committing a crime.