86 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



Nature, for this reason, has adopted it to render the 

 flowers, by opposition, more discernible by the insects, 

 whose agency is required in their fertilization. 



The primary object of nature, however, in giving 

 this hue to the foliage of vegetation, is probably the 

 adaptedness of a green color to promote that degree 

 and kind of absorption of light which is necessary for 

 the oxygenating process, carried on by the leaves or the 

 lungs of the plant. Our knowledge of vital chemistry 

 is not yet sufficient to enable us to assign the peculiar 

 action of the green color of the leaf upon the juices of 

 the vegetable. Green is probably that medium tint 

 which is most favorable to the moderate action of the 

 sun's rays, which would be too powerful as generators 

 of heat in a darker colored leaf, or as generators of 

 oxygen in the lighter colored one. 



