THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



doea its cooking. It is only here that it knows 

 how to mix together the proper elements to re- 

 place its living substance, to nourish itself, to 

 feed itself and to cook its own soup. The green 

 leaf, the sign of plant life, over the whole world 

 everywhere indicates this stew kettle. But some- 

 thing else is necessary for this cooking. We 

 have already seen what this is when we went 

 down in the ocean : — light. Only in the light 

 can the green soup kettles of all plants do their 

 cooking. Now then this little moss plant lives 

 close on the last border of light. The glow of 

 the heavens has become only a weak gift like a 

 pale fog strewn through the cave mouth. So 

 each of its green stew kettles is concentrated in 

 one point. About this point it has placed a 

 burning glass, a light trap, which illuminates 

 the point with a concentrated extract of the pale 

 cave light. Just as there are plants which catch 

 insects by skillful apparatus in order to nour- 

 ish themselves, so we see here a light trapping 

 plant. It has been called illuminated moss. 

 Light catching moss would be a better name, 

 for the illumination, resulting from the reflec- 

 tion of a superficial portion of the captured 

 light, and making it appear to the observer that 

 the plant illuminates itself, is incidental to its 

 purpose and is only a secondary matter. It 

 shines only as the eye of a cat glows ghostly in 

 the half darkness. The cat's eye also is such 

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