According to George Simmons, Hanover Manor's esteemed gardner, the plant kingdom, like animals, maintains a hierarchy. He says that Psilocybe Mexicana, or magic mushrooms, is an example of a genus so highly evolved that its members can actually communicate thoughts and feelings.

Without any capacity for speech, Simmons asserts, they manufacture substances to temporarily alter the minds of the creatures that ingest them--then beam their messages and visions. That's how plants talk, socialize, share.

The gardener goes on to explain that what these plants manufacture isn't the byproduct of seeding or photosynthesis, reproduction, or any life-sustaining function. And when he puzzled over this, the plants sent him a kind of "Why else would we make it?" message.

Simmons enjoys instructing his grandson, Christopher Robin, on how to identify plants on the manor grounds he can safely listen and talk to.

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