The Natural Sun
Announcements about our sun and its natural conditions
- Chapter 54 -
Miraculous plant-growth upon the planet Miron (Neptune) Mutability of life forms
This planet's terrain is on average, level rather than mountainous. The plains are normally criss-crossed by brooks, rivers and streams, the streams surging into the sea from some mountain gorges with a roar and great force. No standing waters of any significance, such as lakes, are to be found anywhere. The largest among them would have a circumference of hardly a few hours walk.
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But at the northern and southern mountain boundaries there are volcanoes and therewith frequently boiling springs also and occasional hot brooks, which considerably raise this land's temperature. Firstly, the air streaming through these plains and valleys is heated, so that you could not easily speak of cold winds; secondly, the soil itself is warmed, raising the temperature, wherewith it becomes very fruitful, bringing forth the most amazing fruits everywhere.
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Regarding the volcanoes, it is to be noted that their flames as well as glow is not of a dirty red colour like on Earth but a light green one, which firstly is much brighter than the red, making it more beneficial in its warming effect, than the shine of the red colour.
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Therefore this planet's inhabitants also see the sun itself in a greenish-white light. The reason is the extended atmosphere, as well as the latter's purity. Wherefore, distant lands do not appear blue, as on Earth but green which, as said, is due to the light and mostly the atmosphere. For this reason the leaves of trees, shrubs and plants as well as the grass are blue, being the reverse of what it is on Earth. We have already found the blue colour predominant upon Saturn, but that is nowhere near as intensive and vivid as here.
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Some might ask: how is this possible? This is easily possible and can be understood by those initiated into light-refraction. Green is the most intensive and therefore most powerful colour, wherefore it also penetrates almost the entire plant world upon planets nearer the sun, being reflected from leaves and younger branches. All other colours therefore are less intensive and hence can penetrate only tender objects. The colour blue however is the least intensive, wherefore its most minimal part is consumed, leaving the air saturated with it, the reason why upon your Earth, distant objects always appear blue.
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Upon our planet Miron however, due to its great distance and its dense atmosphere, the opposite is the case. The colour of green light at such distance (from sunshine) necessarily loses some of its intensity, for you can take it from Me that there are fewer sun's rays falling upon the entire planet Miron than upon your Africa. When these few sun's rays fall upon the Miron atmosphere they are, as the most beneficial, immediately absorbed. Only the blue ray, the far inferior enlivener, is allowed through its atmosphere, to fall upon the plant kingdom; for which reason, as previously said, the plants, excepting the blossoms, appear coloured in a most beautiful blue. But we shall not need further mathematical relationships for our purpose, and that is enough said for every thinking spirit. Hence we shall turn to the actual kingdom; this is something truly marvellous for you.
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Concerning this planet's plant kingdom, it is something truly marvellous.
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A fruit tree, for example, continues growing until it reaches a certain size and the fruit is as lusciousness as it can be. It grows to a height of about two hundred metres in twenty to thirty Miron years, each of which last thirteen of your months, not as a sun year but a Miron year. Once it reaches maximum growth a sudden transformation takes place from one day to the next. Either it completely vanishes and an observer detects a host of completely new insects; or the tree casts off its branches, which detach themselves somewhat like your autumn leaves and the stem then drives forth completely different branches, which in time bringing forth entirely different fruit.
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What occurs with various trees can also occur with smaller plants.
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The law of this transition also extends to the animal kingdom, right up to the biggest four-footed land animals. The kingdoms of amphibians and the various insects also are subject to this transition. However, unlike in the kingdom of caterpillars and insects upon your Earth, where the same butterfly always emerges from the same caterpillar and the same insect from the same worm, on the planet Miron, this all happens in accordance with circumstances and the season, wherefore none can predict what shall emerge at any location.
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Wherefore this planet's inhabitants do not trouble unduly with science, especially concerning the world of plants and lower animals, but they do establish observations where nature exhibits consistency.
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Thus upon Miron it can frequently happen that some bird, butterfly or flying insect lays its eggs, usually into the warm soil and instead of similar or different animals, a plant will emerge, which lasts for a certain time and then completely dies out. From the mildew of these dead plants and not infrequently their seeds, instead of similar plants, new animals emerge; and sometimes even a well-formed animal can be found within the notably large and solid shells when they are opened, with a shape resembling either an already known animal or some entirely new one.
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Some could say: this can also be found on Earth, for who has not seen fruit and kernels species that not infrequently already carry creeping things within and like the Gallus apple, the Beech tree leave kernels, the Oak tree acorns, the gnarled bud of the rose bush and so on, are nothing but peculiar plant eggs within which a living worm is born. But I say: this is indeed true, but there is a big difference between a constantly uniform and a constantly changing manifestation.
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For which reason this planet can rightly be called Miron (world of wonders), since its vegetation as well as animal manifestation is so exceptionally changeable that an extinct plant, tree or animal species never re-appears completely the same. To what extent this planet corresponds to its peculiar name shall be shown even more distinctly next time.