CHAPTER IX 



FOG, FLOWERS, AND FOLIAGE 



" Air, air, fresh life-blood, thin and searching air, 

 The clear, dear breath of God that loveth us." 



Air is invisible, and earth a very tangible thing indeed, 

 which makes us forget sometimes how much air does for 

 us, to feed and nourish. We do not only live in it, we 

 live of it ; and by we I mean all breathing creatures, 

 whether men or lower animals or plants. What brings 

 the truth most home to us is having to do without air — 

 in a London fog, for instance. 



We have been talking a great deal about the flowers 

 and plants of London. Alas ! very few of them are grown 

 there ; most of them have to be imported. During the 

 winter months fog is too terrible an enemy, so insidious 

 is it, playing havoc even with our indoor and conservatory 

 plants. 



It is interesting to learn from the researches of the 

 savants, that the evil effect of urban fog on flowers and 

 foliage is twofold. The injuries are produced in two 

 quite separate ways : one is the presence of poison in the 

 atmosphere ; the other, the reduction of light, which is 

 the invariable result of the fog of cities and manufactur- 

 ing towns. 



Darkness and poison ! Does not th is sound worse than 

 a plague of Egypt ? Yet we town-folk suffer it without 

 much grumbling, and scientists spend as much time in 

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