WANT OF LIGHT. 993 
to attack the plants we keep in our drawing- 
rooms, particularly if our houses are situated in 
dark and smoke-obscured quarters of the city, 
which is simply caused by the absence of suffi- 
cient light; this is called etiolation. Every one 
must have noticed the difference in the look of in- 
door and out-of-door plants; it is as great (and 
curious to say it depends upon the same cause) 
as between a Londoner and a ruddy ploughman 
fresh from the cart-tail. We may refer back the 
reader to page 69, for the purpose of refreshing 
his recollection on the influences of light. This 
is the sole cause of this malady,—the plant has 
not enough light; it consequently becomes of a 
sickly, pale-yellow colour, grows weak and 
straggling, and ultimately dies, pining away for 
the absent sun-light. 
We are perhaps right when we say, that the 
art of gardening lies in a great measure in bring- 
ing up plants in perfect health. Just as the 
little squalid children of our streets are sickly 
and pale, and prone to many diseases that never 
attack children placed by the Providence of God 
in happier circumstances; so plants that are neg- 
lected by their owners, fed with improper food, 
