THE ACTION OF CHLOROPHYLL 



hand, an excess of light may be injurious. Those 

 plants that grow on the shores and sandbanks are 

 exposed to an intense glare of light, too destructive 

 of chlorophyll to be borne by the plant with safety. 

 In these plants the surface is either provided with 

 a rough, woolly, hair-like covering, or is of a dull, 

 scaly character that shields the green corpuscles from 

 the superabundance of the solar energy. 



Most plants also that grow in very strong light 

 have their leaves vertically arranged, so that the 

 beams fall in lines parallel to the surface, while 

 those that thrive best in the shade expose their sur- 

 face horizontally, the direct rays, or diffused light of 

 the sky, reaching them in lines at right angles to the 

 leaf, and therefore most effectively. Thus it is seen 

 that the active energy influencing the functions of the 

 chlorophyll corpuscles is the all-pervading Ether that 

 transmits to the budding leaf the vibrations of light 

 and heat from the far distant Sun. In the absence 

 of light and heat, the plant would be but little better 

 than dead tissues. 



The first step in the life action of chlorophyll ap- 

 pears to be the decomposition of water and of carbon 

 dioxide ; the elimination of oxygen and the synthesis 

 of carbo-hydrates in the shape of some form of dis- 

 solved sugar or one of its many nearly isomeric rela- 

 tives. Next follows the decomposition of alkaline or 

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