THE MOON AND PLANT GROWTH 85 



they agreed each to devour her children; but the 

 Moon, instead of eating up her Stars, hid them 

 from the Sun's sight, who, believing them all 

 devoured, ate up her own; no sooner had she done 

 this than the Moon brought forth her family out 

 of their hiding-place. When the Sun saw them, 

 filled with lage, she chased the Moon to kill her; 

 the chase has lasted ever since, and sometimes the 

 Sun even comes near enough to bite the Moon, 

 and that is an eclipse; the Sun, as men may see, 

 devours her Stars at dawn, and the Moon hides 

 hers all day while the Sun is near, and only brings 

 them out at night when her pursuer is far away." 



In old almanacs we find the supremacy of the 

 moon over plant growth fully admitted, although 

 the reasoning is sometimes rather abstruse and 

 difficult to our modern intelligence. 



In Wing's Almanac for 1661 we read: " It is a 

 commor^ observation in astrology, and confirmed by 

 experience, that what corn or tree soever are set 

 or sown when the sun or moon is eclipsed, and the 

 unfortunate planets predominate, seldom or never 

 come to good." 



Devonshire farmers have, from time immemorial, 

 made it a rule to gather their apples for storing at 

 the wane of the moon; the reason being that during 

 the moon's increase it is said that the apples are 

 full, and therefore will not keep. Bacon seems to 

 have considered that even the " braine of man 

 waxeth moister and fuller upon the Full of the 

 Moon." And as we study all these old writings, 

 we come to realise that the moon was held to have 

 a very special and predominant influence over 

 vegetation, and it was said that there existed a 



