192 The Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



thri\-e at all, or fail utterly. Plants may be divided for the 

 purposes of this paper into" Shade Enduring," "Light Enduring," 

 "Shade Needing," "Light Needing." 



Plants which need shade will not endure bright sunlight, 

 hence many wild flowers growing naturally in very shady woods 

 soon die if exposed to bright sunlight. On the contrary, plants 

 which need light will soon die in dense shade. Examples of these 

 are the birch and poplar, which, when they have abundant light, 

 grow rapidly, but if shaded, wnll soon die. Then there are the 

 shade enduring trees, such as the spruce, cedar, beech and hem- 

 lock, which will live for years under dense shade ; and there are 

 the light enduring species, such as some of our wild flowers, 

 which succeed best in shady places, but will also thrive well in 

 bright sunlight. 



Plants which grow" naturally in shade are not great seed 

 producers, but to make up for this they often increase very 

 rapidly bv offsets, layers and suckers. It is interesting to note 

 that a large proportion of the plants in woods are spring flowering 

 species which bloom before the leaves of the trees are fully out 

 and before there is dense shade. Most plants need abundant 

 sunlight for great seed production as it is through sunlight and 

 by the aid of the leaves that the nourishment necessary for the 

 production of seed is secured. For example, take the weeds 

 which are great seed producers. Of the many plants which have 

 become weeds here there are \-ery few which are natives of this 

 country, as most of our species are woodland plants and also 

 do not succeed well in the open, while the introduced weeds have 

 been grown in open ground for centuries. The asters and golden 

 rods, which are abundant seed producers, are native plants. 

 These grow naturalh' in meadows or open woods. 



Most of our cultivated fruits are light needing plants 

 thriving best and producing the largest crops in full sunlight 

 and the foregoing information has been giA'cn wnth a 

 view to impressing this fact on fruit growers. Plants 

 take food from the soil and air. From the soil, 

 the plant food passes up through the young wood in crude 

 sap, which, on being distributed through the leaves, is changed by 

 the action of sunlight and other agencies and becomes what is 

 known as "elaborated" or made fit to add new tissue to the 

 plant. This elal^orated sap returns between the bark and the 

 yoxmg wood and is distributed over the plant as required. 

 It descends to the roots and in the case of herbaceous biennials 

 and perennials it accumulates there and this plant food is stored 

 up and made available for leaf or seed production the following 

 year, as in the beet, turnip, carrot, mangold, and onion, which in 



