wild-cistus

Updated: May 6, 2025

If the sudden folding of a sensitive-plant's leaf when touched, or the spreading out of the stamens in a wild-cistus when gently brushed, is to be considered a vital action of a purely physical kind; then so too must be considered the equally slow contraction of a polype's tentacles.

Herbert Spencer - Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I