A curious observation which had been made in a garden at Cape Town in March, 1905, seems to bear on this point. A large, oval grass plot was surrounded by a border of the Kei-apple plant, half of which was to all appearances dead, the stems being white and leafless, while the other half was green and luxuriant. The border had been replanted several times, but without any success. The points which appeared remarkable were these :

1o. Every plant in the decayed portion was affected to a similar degree. There was no indication that any individual plant had been protected by its position from the mischievous action, whatever it might be.

2o. At each end of the dead portion there was a length of 6 feet in which the plants were very poor, but were not altogether leafless. Both of these lengths were on the south side of the luxuriant half of the oval. Their symmetrical arrangement could not be accidental, and suggested that the cause of the decay was one which was constantly and gradually changing its position from day to day.

On the morning of March 23rd the sunrise was being watched at 6h. 53m., and while the garden lay in the shadow cast by the Lion's Rump, the sunlight out to sea was moving shorewards, till it eventually came up the gently sloping ground to where the oval border was. At 7h. 37m. it reached that portion which was luxuriant, and three minutes afterwards it was diagonally across the grass plot, almost joining the ends of the decayed portion. Two feet out of the six-feet lengths at each end were in sunlight as 8 o'clock struck and the sunlight's further progress ceased. A shadow fell across the dead oval border and lasted till 9h. 50m. It was caused by a neighbouring house, and at 9h. 50m. it joined the two extreme points as if with a straight edge. The length of 6 feet at either end is at once the proof and the result of the gradual variation in the incidence of the early rays, owing to the sun's changing declination. The leafless state of the plants, it is suggested, was due to their being in intense sunlight from 9h. 50m. onwards; and without the rays of low refrangibility to re-arrange the chlorophyll-granules the stems turned white, indicating that the granules had withdrawn to the innermost cell-walls away from the mid-day glare. The chlorophyll bodies had not been deprived of the requisites for developing the green pigment, but the granules had accumulated on those surfaces which were least exposed to the bright light. An examination of several neighbouring gardens showed the action to be the same everywhere in the case of the Kei-apple plant. Wherever the early rays did not reach it, and it was in full sunlight for the rest of the day, its state was just the same. Cape local time is that of Long. 30° E, or 46 minutes before sun's mean time. This observation therefore elicits the fact that at sea-level, as well as at an altitude of 4450ft., plants which do not receive direct sunlight before 9h. 4m. in March (true time) are very prejudicially affected, while those that receive it as late as 8h. 6m. change colour. The withdrawal of the chlorophyll-granules to a position of apostrophe,' and the cessation of growth both of the peas at Pretoria and of the

Kei-apple at Cape Town, can be more readily accounted for as an effect of intense illumination rather than of temperature. These effects were prevented wherever sunrise rays fell on the plants.

Another plant which has shown itself to be susceptible to the early morning rays is the Scarlet Verbena. In this case 24 Verbena slips were planted in a circular bed in the garden at Pretoria. Eight of these were scarlet, and were planted together on the south-west side. Not one of them rooted, whereas the remainder did. Amongst the plants that succeeded was a scarlet one, and when it was observed that that portion of the bed where they had failed had been in shadow at sunrise, six more scarlet slips were cut from this one, and were planted in the same place, when the shadow no longer fell on it at sunrise. Four out of the six rooted. One of the two that failed was in the shadow cast by a pine-apple seedling till 8h. 30m.

During a successful experiment to try and revive some desiccated Macrocarpas an observation was made which seems to connect the foregoing results with the cloud-phenomenon of March 12th, and to show that they were due rather to the action of light upon chlorophyll-granules than to temperature. Three Macrocarpas forming part of a hedge 7ft high, withered from the effects of the winter of 1905. By September the foliage and epidermis were russet-red. An experienced local gardener pronounced it impossible to restore them by watering or by any other means. An examination of the roots proved them to be healthy, and it was determined to try and save the trees by the application of water to the epidermis. In order to obtain a constant drip upon the stems, bottles were tied near the top of each tree, neck downwards, and corked. A hole had been knocked in the bottom, and another had been drilled through the cork. When the bottles were filled with water from the bottom, a constant drip took place which could be regulated by a plug of wood in the cork. About 2 pints of water were allowed to fall on to the stems in this way during the 24 hours. All the trees revived gradually. New shoots were not put out, but the old branches and aciculated leaves turned first yellow and then green, showing, in the writer's opinion, that desiccation had resulted from too small a supply of water to the protoplasm of the cells, and from too much sun. It seems probable that the chlorophyll-granules were heaped up on those cell-walls which were parallel to the incident light, and as long as this continued the yellow colour remained. But when sufficient water once more reached the protoplasm vitality returned, and the granules resumed their functions under the influence of light. There were two sprays in particular which supported this view of the action going on within the cells. They were near the top of one of the trees, and turned the usual canary-yellow. They were watched for 13 days, and no sign of chlorophyll appeared. The branch to which they belonged was then separated from the rest, and it was found to spring from a node 2 inches above the drip of the water. This was the first instance of the kind. The bottle was accordingly raised, and within 48 hours the sprays turned green. It was considered in this case, as in that of the peas, which turned yellow

when the early rays were cut off and resumed their green colour when the rays were readmitted, that light acting upon the chlorophyllgranules, and not temperature, was the true explanation.

On March 27th the further experiment was made of screening peas from the time they were sown. It was also desired to eliminate the possibility of sunset or of reflected rays having vitiated the former results. Some of the seedlings in Rows I. and II. had been observed to have received more sunset rays than others, and also some reflected rays from a house window 20 yards away. Three more plots, each 5ft. long, were planted with selected seeds of Dwarf Stratagem peas, 4 to 6 inches apart, where they would receive the earliest rays, but no direct sunlight after 15h. 30m. Plots A and B were provided with iron screens, the former 10 inches wide by 8 inches high, and the latter 14 inches wide by 9 inches high. The peas in Plot A, which were furthest from the screen, were arranged to receive the rays about half-an-hour before those nearest to the shadow thrown by the screen, while those actually in the shadow would not receive any direct rays till after 8h. 42m. The screen at the head of Plot B was perforated with 7 holes the size of a threepenny piece, that the effect of intermittent light, if any, might be watched. Plot C was used as a control without any screen at all.

At sunrise on March 28th the ground in Plot A up to within 18 inches of the screen was lit gradually from 6h. 50m. up to 7h. 3m. On April 2nd the first seed appeared above ground. It was the end seed (No. 1) furthest from the screen. Rain fell during the day, and on the 3rd the majority of the peas showed their leaves above the surface in all the plots. The first table gives the times of incidence of direct rays upon each plant in Plot A from April 8th onwards. No. 8 was just on the edge of the deep shadow; Nos. 3, 4, 7 had not come up. The next table gives the measurements which were taken on April 14th.

Plot A.-Times of Incidence of Rays, April 8-12.

On April 12th there was not the least doubt that, small though the differences were in the times of incidence, the peas varied greatly in the height to which they had grown and in the size of their leaves. No. 6 had come up after No. 8, and was much the worst of all. The remainder had come up within a few hours of one another, but were visibly smaller as they approached the screen. much smaller in every way than No. 5, and two of its five leaves were only just visible. No. 8 was of No. 2. The leaves of No. 5 were much inferior to those Nos. 9 and 10 in the shadow of the screen had not come up, nor had Nos. 3, 4, and 7. up and examined. Two of the seeds were good, and one of them The three latter were accordingly dug was germinating. The screen was removed before sunrise on April 13th, and direct sunlight admitted to the whole of the plot by 7h. 16m. in order to see whether any of the seeds 3, 4, 7, 9, or 10 would come up. They did not do so. II weeds appeared within the area of the shadow, whereas none had After the screen was removed appeared there previously though there were many in other parts of the plot.

Meanwhile the peas in Plot B were teaching exactly the same lesson. Growth was in proportion to the amount of early rays the plants received, and the direct light during the rest of the day did not equalise matters. the screen. But a curious result followed from perforating The two nearest peas to it received intermittent rays for some 6 minutes at a time between 8h. and 8h. 30m. During 9 days the leaves remained just visible above ground. whatever. The holes were then stopped up, so that the peas remained in shadow till 1oh. 30m. There was no growth occurred but they were only 2 m.m. and 5 m.m. high respectively. In 7 days' time no change in colour Sunrise rays were then admitted to one of them, but not to the other. The latter is dead, the former is still alive, nearly 3 months afterwards, but is barely 5 m.m. high.*

These experiments and observations appear to be worthy of consideration. The exceptional circumstances under which they were carried out must be borne in mind, but, taken in connection with the remarkable effect of sunrise rays upon the cirrus particles in the sky on March 12th, they suggest that protoplasm in the presence of water may be a medium through which the vibratory energy of the rays is conveyed to the chlorophyll-granules imbedded in it.

The lesson taught by the Kei-apple border, confirmed by the experiments with vegetables and macrocarpas, and interpreted by the cloud-phenomenon which has been described, may possibly be that the directive force lies in the rays of light, and is not entirely inherent in protoplasm. protoplasm, and of its behaviour in the water-weed Vaucheria clavata. I would remind you of the discovery of It is between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. that new protoplasm is always put forth by a movement of rotation and forward straining (Kerner). The little ellipsoid has a polarity, and always moves with the same end forward. Its first motion is towards the light, and

* It lived till Aug. 3rd.

as it moves it turns round its longer axis invariably from east to west, or in the direction opposed to that of the earth. It behaves as if it were a little magnet actuated by currents of electricity proceeding from our kosmic system.

The critical hour of 8h. to 9h. appears in a number of phenomena connected with the sun, for which we are still searching for an explanation. It is suggested that those botanists who can do so should specially examine the distribution of chlorophyll-granules on cell-walls from sunrise up to 9h. Should the result confirm the hypothesis which has been advanced to try and correlate the curious facts which have been described, we may hopefully look forward to a day when a direct connection will be proved, not only between the sun's energy, magnetic phenomena, and the running of sap, but between the sun's vibratory rays and even gravity itself.