Life : its nature, varieties, and phenomena

Preface

The object of this work is two-fold. First, it is proposed to give a popular account of the phenomena which indicate the presence of that mysterious, sustaining force we denominate Life, or Vitality, and of the laws which appear to govern their manifestation ; secondly, wUl be considered those Spiritual, or Emotional and Intellectual States, which collectively constitute the essential history of our temporal lives, rendering existence either pleasurable or painful. The inquiry will thus embrace all the most interesting and instructive subjects alike of physiology and psychology : the constitution and functions of the bodies in which we dwell ; the delights which attend the exercise of the intellect and the affections ; the glory and loyeliness of the works of God, will all come under notice, and receive their fitting meed of illustration. Especially will the practical value and interest of hfe be pointed out ; the unity and fine symmetry of the True, the Beautiful, and the Grood ; the poetry of ' ' common things, ' ' and the intimate dependence of the whole upon Him in whom " we live, and move, and have our being. ' ' Man, as the noblest recipient, upon earth, of the divine life, will naturally be the principal object of consideration ; not, however, the only one. Seeing that he is the Archetype of the entire system of living things, the principles of a true doctrine concerning Mm become the

4 PREFACE.

principles of Natural History in every one of its departments. Animals, plants, even the inorganic world of minerals, will all, therefore, be taken account of, in so far as will be needful to the general purpose of the volume. To those who care for the illustration which physical science casts upon the science of mind, and upon the truths of Revelation, there will probably be much that is both novel and inviting. In fact, it has been sedulously aimed to show how intimate and striking is the relation of human knowledges, and how grand is the harmony of things natural and divine. Some readers may regard the combination of physiology, poetry, and theology, so eminently characteristic of these chapters, as detrimental to their value, since the subjects in question are commonly regarded as incongruous. It is sufficient to say, in anticipation of such criticism, that one great aim of the entire work is to show the essential consanguinity of every form of human thought and human feeling. There has been no hesitation in dealing with some of the most sacred of topics. The physical and the spiritual worlds are in such close connection, that to attemj^t to treat i^hilosophieally of either of them apart from the other, is to divorce what God has joined together. Though the authorized teacher of holy things undoubtedly has his special office, it is no invasion, therefore, of his prerogative to speak ' ' religiously' ' on themes so high and beautiful as the attestations of the divine love expressed in nature. Science without religion is empty and unvital. True wisdom, finding the whole world expressive of Grod, calls upon us to walk at all times and in all places, in the worship and reverent contemj)lation of Him. Wishful at all times to speak modestly, and upon sacred matters always most reverently, if a single sentence in the volume can be shown not to be in accordance with, or can be proved contrary to a right and true interpretation of Scripture,

PKEPACB. 5

it is here, once for all, acknowledged false, and declared unspoken.

The views which are set forth lay few claims to originality. They are such as have been held by select thinkers in every age, though perhaps never before expressed connectedly, or in similar terms. Not that the book is a mere compilation of time-worn facts. Several of the chapters, such as those upon Rejuvenescence, and the Prefigurations of Nature, deal with subjects hitherto scarcely touched. Neither are the views here offered final, or binding on a single reader ; they are offered as opinions and convictions rather than as dogmas. Certainly, most part of the work is written affirmatively, but this must be taken only as indicating earnestness of conviction ; anything like dogmatizing is altogether disclaimed. They are views which have brought inexpressible happiness to the writer ; and they are offered in the hope that, while they may render the strange mystery of life less perplexing, they will help to render others happy likewise.

That the book is in many respects greatly deficient, no one can become more sensible than the author is. It would be remarkable were it otherwise, when the vast extent of the subject is considered, and the impossibility of compressing it into moderate limits. Ordinarilj', those subjects have been preferred for consideration which are least commonly attended to. Some may seem to call for more lengthy treatment than they receive ; but they are designedly curtailed, because already discussed in extenso by authors of repute. Such are Sleep, and the Brain. The incompleteness of the remarks upon others is compensated in the author's separate writings. A large number of quotations will be found, ample reference being made to the authorities in all the more important of them, and the remainder acknowledged in the usual manner. The reader who is acquainted with the 1 *

6 PREFACE.

authors cited will not regret to meet old friends ; and to the younger student, they may be valuable as pointing to new sources of information. Inserted, as a considerable portion of them have been, purely from memory, exercised over a long and diversified course of reading, it has been impossible always to authenticate minutely. For the benefit of the younger reader, copious references to the literature of the subject are also introduced ; the book forming, in this respect, a kind of index.

Appended will be found an appropriate adjunct to the subject of Life, in the shape of a little essay on " Times and Seasons."

CO^TEi^TS.

Chapter I. Page

General idea of Life, and universality of its presence — Latent life — %■> Value of the doctrine sought to be established 11

CHAPTER IL

The Source of life, and the rationale of life — The essence of life undiscoverable — Laws of Nature 26

Chapter III

The varieties of life — Organic life — The vital stimuli — Correlation of forces 38

Chapter IV

Food — Molecular death and renewal of the body — Specialities of food — Hunger the source of moral order — Hunger and love the world's two great ministers 57

Chapter V

The Atmosphere in its relation to life — Respiration — The Heart and the Lungs — Respiration of plants — Trees in grave-yards 77

CHAPTER VL

Motion the universal Sign of life — ^Motion in plants — Motion needful to Beauty — The Sea and the Clouds — Repose 100

CHAPTER VIL

Death — Causes of physical death — The Blood — The nervous system — Tenacity of Life — Death of plants Ill

O CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE

The various letises of life — Lease of life in plants — Trees — Death balanced by reproduction 128

CHAPTER IX.

Duration of life in Animals — -Leases of the Mammalia; of Birds; of Fishes and Reptiles; of Insects — Lease of Human Life 162

CHAPTER X.

Grounds of the various lease of life — Spiritual basis of nature — The material world representative only — ^Materialism and Spiritualism.. 175

CHAPTER XI.

Grounds of the various lease of life, continued — Correspondence of Nature and Mind — -Leases of extinct animals and plants — The Pre- Adamite world — Geology and Psj'chology 194

CHAPTER XIL

The spiritual expression of life — Nature and Seat of the Soul — The Soul a spiritual body 207

CHAPTER XIIL

Soul, Spirit, Ghost — Meaning of these words — Philosophy of Language — Anima and Animus — Psyche and Pneuma — Summary 227

CHAPTER XIV.

True idea of Youth and Age — Age no matter of Birth-days — The Intellect in advanced life — Life is Love 249

CHAPTER XV.

The affections in relation to life — Love of Nature — Poetry of Common things — The Imagination — Natural History and the Pulpit — Town versus Country 264

CHAPTER XVI.

The Intellectual faculties in relation to Life — True idea of Education —Reading— The Friendship of Books 280

CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER XVII.

PAaE

The Religious Element of Life — True idea of Religious Sects — Worldly pleasures and Religion 298

CHAPTER XVIII.

Life realized by Activity — Action the law of Happiness — Ennui — Art of Conversation — Play 311

CHAPTER XIX.

Death in relation to the spiritual life — -Scriptural meanings of Death. 333

CHAPTER XX.

Rejuvenescence — Death an operation of Life — Sleep — Spring — The Poem of Geology — Flowering plants and Humanity — New doctrines and old 314

CHAPTER XXL

Health and Disease^ — The miracle of Healing — -Rationale of miracles—Unity of Truth 366

CHAPTER XXIL

Mortality and Immortality — Life to be made the most of — Sorrow for the Dead — -Why is man immortal? — Doctrine of the immortality of brutes 386

CHAPTER XXIIL

The Resurrection and the Future Life — -True and false emblems of Death— Dreams— The Spiritual World 406

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Analogies of Nature— Law of Prefiguration 425

CHAPTER XXV.

The Chain of Nature — Continuous and Discrete Degrees — Law of Promotion 447

10 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

PAGE

The Unity of Nature — Homology — True principles of Classification of organized beings 470

CHAPTER XXVII.

Man the Epitome of Nature — Three Kingdoms of the Human Body • — Three Degrees of Human Life 497

CHAPTER XXVIII,

Instinct and Reason — Instinct co-ordinate with Life — Specialties of Instinct 509

CHAPTER XXIX.

Instinct and Reason, continued — Instinct in Man — Reason and Intelligence 521

CHAPTER XXX.

Summary — Inspiration — Life epitomized in Genius 535

LIFE.

Chapter I

GBNERAL IDEA OF IjIFE, AND TTNIVERSAIjITT OF ITS FMESENCE.

1. Life is the loftiest subject of philosophy. There is no place where life is not present; and there never was a time when life was not. In the great composite fact of a Creator are involved the elemental facts of Omnipresence and Eternity of existence; and these, in turn, involve Infinite Creative Activity, which is the production and sustentation of arenas of ever-renovated life. To suppose the Creator ever to have been inactive or unproducing, would be to suppose him inconsistent with himself. Doubtless every one of the innumerable orbs of the universe had a beginning, — some, probably, were created long subsequently to others, and are comparatively in their childhood; but a period when there were no worlds, — no terraqueous scenes of the bestowal of the Divine Love, the mind is incapable of conceiving. Ancient as our own world is, there were " morning stars" which "sang together" at its nativity. That such scenes of life do really exist, certainly we neither know, nor is it probable that it lies within the power of man scientifically to determine; but the affirmative is congenial alike to reason, philosophy, and enlarged ideas of God. Truth in such matters is determined by balancing probabilities, rather than by rigid, mathematical demonstration. If the

12 PROPER MEANING OF THE TERM LIFE.

former proposition be admissible, namely, that an inactive, unproducing Creator is a contradiction in terms, the "plurality of worlds" is a corollary almost inevitable. "Life was not made for matter, but matter for life. In whatever spot we see it, whether at our feet, or in the planet, or in the remotest star, we may be sure that life is there, — life physical to enjoy its beauties — life moral to worship its maker — life intellectual to proclaim his wisdom and his power." Doubtless, too, every shape of organized existence had its own special era of commencement, as illustrated in the sequentialism of the fossils beneath our feet;* but those very fossils show at the same moment, that organic life is contemporaneous with the consolidation of the worlds which it embellishes, and thus with the dayspring of Time. The very purpose of a world's creation is that it shall be at once clothed and made beautiful with life. "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, — God himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it; He created it not in vain; He formed it to be inhabited."

2. Under the term Life, however, rightly regarded, is comprehended far more than it is ordinarily used to denote. We err, if when thinking of the habitations of life we associate it only with ourselves, animals, and plants. Life, in its proper, generic sense, is the name of the sustaining

* The non-geological reader may be apprised that the petrified remains of animals and plants, which form so large a portion of collections of natural curiosities, are not mixed indiscriminately in the earth, but always occupy the same relative places, — that is, every layer or stratum, or at least every group of strata, has its peculiar fossils, showing that there must have been as many distinct creations as there are changes in the character of the relics. When plants and animals first appeared upon our planet, geology will probably never be able to point out, nor even to calculate. Azoic rocks are no proof of azoic periods.

ITS UNIVERSALITY. 13

principle by which everything out of the Creator subsists, whether worlds, metals, minerals, trees, animals, mankind, angels, or devils, together with all thought and feeling. Nothing is absolutely lifeless, though many things are relatively so; and it is simply a conventional restriction of the term, which makes life signify no more than the vital energy of an organized, material body, or the phenomena in which that energy is exhibited. Though in man life be at its maximum, it is not to be thought of as concentrated in him, nor even in " animated nature," outside of which there is as much life as there is inside ; though not the same expression of life. "The life which works in your organized frame," said Laon, "is but an exalted condition of the power which occasions the accretion of particles into this crystalline mass. The quickening force of nature through every form of being is the same."* "The characteristic," observes another quick-sighted writer, " which, manifested in a high degree, we call Life, is a characteristic manifested only in a lower degree by so-called inanimate objects."f Hufeland, Oersted, Humboldt, Coleridge, in his "Theory of Life," Arnold Guyot, in "The Earth and Man," and many others, express themselves in similar terms, none, however, more explicitly than the distinguished Carus: — "The idea of Life is co-extensive with Universal Nature. The individual or integrant parts of Nature are the members; universal nature is the total and complete organism. .The relations of inorganic to organized bodies exist only by reason of this; hence, too, the universal connection, the combination, the never-ceasing action and re-action of all the powers of nature, producing the vast and magnificent

* "Panthea; or, the Spirit of Nature," by Eobert Hunt, p. 50, t Herbert Spencer. — Westminster Bevieiv, April, 1852, p. 472.

14 TESTIMONY OF LANGUAGE.

whole of the world ; — an action and re-action which would be impossible, were not all pervaded by a single principle of Life."* Strictly speaking, every atom of the constituent matter of our globe is alive. "Inanimate matter," "dead matter," often vaguely spoken of, matter waiting for the breath of Deity to give it life, exists only in fable. Matter is not a hearth existing anteriorly to life, and independently of life, and upon which the flame of life is sometime kindled. In its very simplest and crudest forms it is a sign that the flame is already burning. The language of poetry, or rather of the poetic sentiment, — ^the golden key to the essential meanings of words, and the teacher of their right applications, has from ages immemorial shown that life is no mere term of physiology ; and Scrij)ture, which is the sum and immortal bloom of all poetry, pronounces, in its usages, a divine confirmation. In the force and multiplicity of its figurative applications, no word takes precedence of Life, — a fact which mere accident or conformity to other men's example woiild be quite insufficient to account for; the reason is that what we ordinarily call "Life," namely, organic, physiological life, is the exponent and explanatory phase of a principle felt to be omnipresent, manifold in expression, but uniform in entity. The j)rofound, unerring percejDtions of the harmonies of nature, which were the original architects, and are the conservators and trustees of language, acknowledged no private property in words; and though conventionalism and contraction of view may seek to enslave particular terms. Life among the number, ever and ever do those perceptions free them from their bonds, and pass them on to their rightful inheritances. Hence it is that on the

* "The Kingdom of Nature: their Life and Affinity," by Dr. C. Gr. Carus. Translated from the German, in Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, vol. i., p. 223. 1837.

LIFE VARIOUSLY MANIFESTED. 15

lips of the poet; — that is, on the lips of every man who is in closer alliance with God, and Truth, and Nature than are the multitude; — words which with the vulgus have but one solitary, narrowed meaning, are continually found serving varied and brilliant purposes, which Taste appreciates and relishes delightedly. Strange and unnatural as its phrases may sound to the unrefiective mind, figurative language, rightly so called, is Nature's high-priest of Truth. " Rightly so called," because metaphors and similes founded upon mere arbitrary or far-fetched comparisons, though often confounded with figurative language, are generally but its mockery and caricature. True figurative language is an echo of the divine, immortal harmonies of nature, thus their faithful expositor, the vestibule of Philosophy, and an epitome of the highest science of the universe.

3. When it is popularly said, then, that one thing is animate, and another inanimate ; that life is present here, but absent there; the simple fact of the matter is that a particular manifestation of life is absent or present. Such phrases come of confounding Expression, which is variable, with Principle, which is uniform. A- particular presentation of Jife is contemplated, and thus not only is the principle itself misconceived, but everything which does not conform to the assumed impersonation of it is pronounced contrary to that which in reality has no contraries. Just as with popular notions of what constitutes Religion, which it is impossible rightly to apprehend and define, so long as it is confounded with the forms of faith, and the modes and attitudes of worship, by which it is locally sought to be realized. It is a mere assumption, for instance, that life is present only where there are physical growth, feeding, motion, sensation, reproduction, &c. Life confines itself to no such scanty costume ; and as if it would rebuke the penuriousness of a doctrine which so limits and degrades it, often forbears from all the

16 FUNGI AND SPONGES.

more striking phenomena of the series, in the very departments of nature of which they are asserted to be characteristic ; and expresses itself so slenderly, that science needs all its eyes and analogies to discern it. In the fimgi, for example, and in the sponge, both of which forms of being, by reason of then.' attenuated presentation of life, have been regarded in time past as belonging to inoi'ganic nature. Fungi have been thought to be the extinguished relics or corpses of the beautifiil meteors called " falling stars ;" sponges have been deemed mere concretions of the foam of the sea. " There is found," says old Gerarde, " upon the rocks neare vnto the sea, a certaine matter wrought together of the fome or froth of the sea, which we call spunges." It is proper to remark, however, that by Aristotle, the father of natural history, the animal constitution of sponges was at all events anticipated.* So with the beautifiil frondose zoophytes called Sertularia, Thuiaria, Plumularia, Flustra, &c.f So late as a century ago, the mineralogists disputed the zoological and botanical claims to the j)ossession of these beautifril organisms, contending that they were " formed by the sediment and agglutination of a submarine, general compost of calcareous and argillaceous materials, moulded into the figures of trees and

* For a long and eminently interesting acconnt of the opinions and discoveries of the nature of Sponges, and of their situation and rank in the scale of organized heing, see the admirable "History of British Sponges and Lithophytes," by the late lamented Dr. George Johnson, the Gilbert White of the sea.

f Though these names may not be familiar, the objects they designate are known to all who have interested themselves in the curiosities and wonders of the shore. Eesembling sea-weeds in their general aspect and configuration, and commonly confounded with them, they are, nevertheless, readily distinguishable by their senii-crystalline textuffe, and whitish brown color; the prevailing colors of true sea-weeds being pink, green, or dark olive.

THE IDEA OF LIFE A PROGRESSIVE ONE. 17

mosses by the motion of the waves ; by crystallization (as in salts), or by some imagined vegetative 'power in brute matter. Ray himself seems not to have made up his mind about them, for though in some of his writings he indicates a correct apprehension of their nature, in the " Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of Creation," he includes them among " inanimate, mixed bodies," or " stones, metals, minerals, and salts." " Some," says he, " have a kind of vegetation and resemblance of plants, as Corals, Fori, and Fungites, which grow upon the rocks like shrubs." The fact is, the notions of life and of what lives, as of the whole, genuine, truth in any matter, are things essentially of growth, and modification for the better. The popular notion of life is not a censurable one. It necessarily precedes ; the error being to remain in it after it has been shown to be only part of a truth. Partial truths everywhere form the beginnings of knowledge. In science, in philosophy, in theology, it is neither so much nor so often that positively false doctrines are held, as defective ones. The difference between the intellectual conditions of childhood and maturity, and thus between their counterparts, the uncultivated and the cultivated mind, consists, mainly, in the ability to discriminate between what is less true and what is more completely true. Unfortunately, we are all of us too prone to rest content with our little glimpses, and to deem them the absolute total. Tell the dull-witted, uninformed man that the gray, leatherlike fungus upon the old paling lives as veritably as he himself does, and he will laugh at you. To him, eating, drinking, and movement from place to place alone indicate life. You may get his assent perhaps to the proposition that the beautiful tree swaying its branches there, is alive ; but to make the same demand on behalf of the lichens, is to quench all his belief in your sincerity, if not in your sanity. To the perception of this higher theorem he must progress, as his

2®

18 LIFE DOES NOT IMPLY VOLITION.

teacher did before him, and as that teacher also himself further progresses, when not shackled by a mistaken deference, to the perception of a sustaining life even in inorganic things. No estimate of facts in nature can be regarded as just, consistent, and complete, which confines itself to a fixed circumference, calling everything beyond, barbarian. In his sphere, the philosopher who sees life only in organic things, is no more advanced than the rustic and the child, who allow it only to animals.

4. It needs very little observation of nature to perceive that life does not necessarily imply consciousness or feeling. If it did, the whole vegetable creation would be lifeless, together with many animal structures of humble kind, as the sponge and allied beings, So with the mere circumstances, separately taken, of volitional movement, feeding and growth. As regards movement, for instance, no observation or experiment has rendered it even probable that plants ever move volitionally, and the same may be said of the humble animal organisms just alluded to. This might be presupposed, indeed, from the utter absence from plants and the sponge, of consciousness and sensation, seeing that without these there can be no volition, and therefore no impulse to move. The fascinatingly curious examj)les of movement furnished in the different kinds of Sensitive-plant,* may

* There are many kinds of sensitive-plant besides the species commonly so called, though nearly all are comprised in the great family of plants called Leguminosce. The veritable Mimosa sensitiva is a very different thing from the beautiful little Mimosa pudica, the species ordinarily known as the sensitive-plant. The other examples of sensitiveness occur in different species of Oxalidece, a family of which our English wood-sorrel is the type ; and in the extraordinary plants known as the fly-catchers, comprehended in the family of Droseracece, the most remarkable being the North American Venus' fly-trap, or Dionoea muscipula.

PHENOMENA OF VEGETABLE LIFE. 19

seem to be excejDtional, but the whole of these are referable to causes which involve no degree whatever of volition. The most curious of all, namely, the play of the leaflets of the Moving-plant,* may be compared with such movements in the animal body as that of the heart, which is constantly pulsating, yet quite independently of the will, and even out of its control. Exceptions may also seem to occur in the closing and opening of many kinds of flowers, commonly called their sleep and their waking ; also in the folding and re-expansion of the leaves, and in the advance of the stamens of certain flowers towards the pistil. For all of these, however, there is adequate explanation. Causes exciting from without, manifestly elicit the chief part of the respective movements ; while others are purely mechanical. Nothing is easier to perceive, for instance, than that the leap of the stamens of the Kalmia from their niches in the corolla, comes of the wider expansion of the floAver, which unfixes the anthers, and thus causes the filaments to exchange their constrained curvature for the straightness of freedom. f The only other kind of vegetable movement apparently volitional, is that of the minute aquatics called, from the nature of their motion, OsGillcdoria. Carpenter compares this to the ciliary movement in animals, which is

* The Moving-plant, or Desmodium gyrans, is a native of Bengal, and one of the family of the Leguminosse above mentioned. Its leaves are somewhat like those of the clover, and the leaflets, under given circumstances, keep moving up and down. An excellent colored drawing of it may be seen in the " Icones Plantarum Kariorum" of Jacquin, vol. iii., tab. 565. Similar movements take place in the Desmodium gyroides and D. vespertilionis.

t For particulars of various plant-movements of this nature, see Balfour's "Class-Book of Botany," pp. 492-500; and on the subject of plant motion in general, Carpenter's "Principles of General and Comparative Physiology," chap. xv.

20 PHYSIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA.

SO independent of volition as often to continue after the organism itself is dead.*

5. That the mere act of feeding is not an indispensable testimony to the presence of life, is shown in deciduous trees, or those which cast their foliage in the autumn, and hybernate till spring, seeing that without the presence of leaves, no true vegetable nutrition can proceed. Insects, while in the chrysalis form, exemplify the same thing, as do all kinds of hybernating animals. So with the phenomenon of growing. That this is not needed in order to betoken life, is illustrated in every egg before it is placed under the hen, and in every seed before put into the soil. Contemplating " latent life," as the physiologists call it, or that which supports the egg and the seed prior to hatching and germination, we discover in fact, that behind the scenes there is, if possible, even more life than in front. Millions of beings enjoy complete

''' For descriptions and colored drawings of the Oscillatoria, see the "British Fresh-water Algae" of Hassall, (1845), wherein is shown reason also for supposing the motion of these plants to have been " misunderstood and exaggerated to such an extent as to have surrounded them with an unnecessary degree of mystery.

"Ciliary motion" is that of the cilia, in animalcules the principal organs of locomotion and of obtaining food ; but best to be understood, perhaps, from what these organs and their movements are in our own bodies. The human cilia are minute, transparent hairs, ranging from l-500th to l-5000th of an inch in length, and covering various interior surfaces, with which water, or other more or less fluid matters are commonly in contact. They abound about the eyes and ears, and cover the whole extent of the respiratory mucous tract. Their office is to assist in propelling onwards, and usually outwards, the fluid matters brought into contact with them ; and they do this either by constantly waving backwards and forwards, or by whirling round on their bases, so that the extremities describe circles — the natural result being a continuous current in a determinate direction. The waving and whirling are the " ciliary movement."

LATENT LIFE VITALITY OF SEEDS. 21

and active life ; tens of millions lie potentially alive, -crowding with intense vitality the very places which to appearance seem most empty. When excavations are made in the ground, the earth brought to the surface speedily becomes covered with plants, the seeds of which, as they could not possibly have been conveyed there at the moment, must have been lying in the soil, accidentally buried at some remote period, too deep to be acted upon by the rain and air. This is rendered the more indisputable by the curious fact that plants of different species from those common in the neighborhood, not infrequently spring up among the others. Ploughing deeper than usual will occasion similar resurrections, and the same when the surface soil of old gardens is pared off. Often has there shone a lovely and unexpected renewal of choice blossoms on removing the turf under the walls of old, gray castles and abbeys, which for ages, ivy and the faithful wall-flower alone have solaced.* The water contains similar stores, holding in suspension myriads of germs of algse, ready to grow as soon as they meet with a