1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



119 



particularly the eastern extremity is a resting 

 and feeding ground for migratory birds. 

 Through their agency doubtless may be as- 

 cribed the appearance of plants not common 

 to this section of country. Mr. Young and 

 myself found a number of rare plants, mostly 

 around ponds. For example, Rhyncospora 

 nitens, Gray; not before reported north of 

 North Carolina. Rumex Englemanni, a western 

 species; Galactia mollis, Mx., a southern spe- 

 cies; Poh'gonum ramosissimum, Mx., a west- 

 ern species, and Eleocharis tricostata, Torr., 

 a southern species. 



Dr. Allen, of New York, found on Montauk 

 Point, in 1878, Glaucium luteum. Scop., in great 

 abundance. I believe aquatic birds carry parti- 

 cles of mud on their feet containing seeds ; 

 possibly this has been one way of plant distri- 

 bution. The way Hamamelis Virginica has of 

 distributing its seeds is wonderful. The pods 

 explode and send the seed with considerable 

 force. I have found seeds fifteen feet from the 

 pods in which they grew, and that after the pods 

 were taken from the trees. 



BLUE AND OTHER COLORED CLASS. 



The London Gardener^s Magazine gives the 

 following translation of a paper read recently 

 before the Central Agricultural Society of France 

 which will be read with great interest in our 

 country where General Pleasanton's original ex- 

 periments attracted so much attention : 



A series of experiments, not originally in- 

 tended to prove the action of colored light on 

 vegetation, has nevertheless brought to my no- 

 tice some facts which may be of great use in 

 horticulture. 



The effects of the colored rays of the solar 

 spectrum have already been made the subject of 

 investigation by some of the most distinguished 

 savants of the age. The mere enumeration of 

 their labors would be too lengthy for repetition 

 here. 



That eminent physiologist, M. Paul Bert, has 

 of late again devoted himself to the study of this 

 interesting and delicate problem. But, so far, 

 none of these researches, important as they are 

 in their bearings on plant life, have led to any 

 practical method of accelerating the growth of 

 plants in an exceptional manner. Wherever 

 colored light has been used alone, without the 

 interposition of white light, there the plants 

 have withered and died. M. P. Bert's experi- 



ments have furnished conclusive proof of this 

 fact. All colors taken singly, are noxious to 

 plants, he tells us. 



It is an essential condition of vegetation that 

 plants should not exist continually in artificially 

 colored litrht. Therefore, when the conditions 

 under which plants wore intended to exist have 

 been departed from too widely, negative results 

 have invariably followed. But will it be the 

 same when a plant is exposed to the action of 

 particular rays of colored light modified by the 

 presence of white light? Here, as I have just 

 remarked, some facts of great importance to 

 horticulture have come under our notice. The 

 sensation will not have been forgotten which 

 was created in the scientific world when M. 

 Poey communicated to the French Academy of 

 Sciences the marvellous results obtained by the 

 American General Pleasanton, with vines grown 

 in a vinery illumined with violet and white 

 glass, and which in a very short time produced 

 an exceptionally abundant crop of grapes. 



Results as exceptional, according to the same 

 authority, were obtained in fattening cattle and 

 pigs by the same means. But here we have to 

 do with plants, not with live stock. I cannot 

 confirm these statements, but I shall no longer 

 attempt to invalidate them, inasmuch as experi- 

 ments of my own in pursuing a totally distinct 

 line of research have taught me, as will pres- 

 ently be seen, that the views of the American 

 General are not to be entirely rejected. 



I shall not attempt to explain the phenomena 

 scientifically; whether they are chemical, physi- 

 ological, or merely mechanical, it is impossible 

 for me to say. However this may be, the facts 

 reported by M. Poey suggested to me the idea 

 of the experiments of which I am about to 

 speak; and if I did not exactly get what I 

 sought, the results obtained, in my opinion, 

 largely compensated me for my failure. 



Some years back the Natural History Museum 

 received from Monte Video a very small her- 

 baceous plant, forwarded by a French natural- 

 ist, M. Lasseau, and labeled "Pretty little 

 Monothacea from neighborhood of Monte 

 Video." This humble-looking little acaules- 

 cent herbaceous plant, consisting merely of 

 seven or eight myrtiform leaves, justified its 

 appelation, a pretty little plant. It grew well 

 at the museum, but never blossomed; the blos- 

 som invariably failed, but not all at once. After 

 the invariable fall of an almost microscopic 

 corolla, the ovary continued its normal evolu- 



