THE STRUGGLE FOR LIGHT 



49 



It may well be that the sun performs different functions 

 at different parts of its course. The midday sun by reason 

 of its heat is the fertilising sun, and the patterns of the leaves 

 seem to be designed to meet a vertical sun ; but we have now, 

 within the last few years, good reason to believe that separate 

 species of plants are greedy of other angles of sunlight. Just 

 as a German doctor has maintained that it is only the morn- 

 ing meal that fattens, some gardeners argue that it is only 

 the morning sun that properly ripens some fruits and colours 

 some flowers. Without the early morning sun tomatoes and 

 nasturtiums languish ; but suffer no sort of harm, at least to 

 all appearance, if they are screened from the afternoon sun- 

 light. It has long seemed to the writer that the tits prefer 

 a nesting-hole which faces the east. We all know that all 

 birds are at their greatest activity in the morning. The 

 more one observes nature the more one is struck by the 

 parallelisms of the natural kingdoms. Many plants may live 

 their most active hours, like the birds, in these early hours. 

 The corn-cockle, Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon, takes his rest at this 

 flaming hour because his energy has remained unflagged 

 since sunrise, when he found the quality of light that his 

 being needed. The St. John's wort and tobacco plant are 

 owls of a sort, disliking the light, and the grass and dandelion 

 a wake-robin. 



