42 GERMINATION 



To show that this is not mere theory I will give an account 

 of experiments carried out during the past two years. 



There is, I need hardly say, a great deal of difference 

 between seed electrification and electrification of the soil. 

 When the so-called electrified seed is sown it is not electrified, 

 but is just an ordinary seed in a state of maturity, and 

 with germination and the consequent rupture of the inner 

 membrane it ceases to possess electrostatic capacity, 

 becomes a seedling and takes its charge direct from the 

 earth, first through the lower end of the radicle and later 

 through the filaments which the radicle throws out. But 

 when electricity is applied to the soil there is continuous 

 electrification of the seed and of the seedling also and the 

 electromotive force and sign of current incidental to that 

 added stimulus should be studied and their effect observed. 



In Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, Dr. Russell writes 

 upon the supposed stimulation of plants by electricity, 

 heat and radium, as follows : 



" The Electric Discharge. It has often been stated 

 that an electric discharge increases the rate of growth of 

 plants either by direct action on the plant, or by indirect 

 action in the soil. As far back as 1783 the Abbe Bertholon 

 constructed his electro-vegetometre, a kind of lightning 

 conductor that collected atmospheric electricity and then 

 discharged it from a series of points over the plant. The 

 view that atmospheric electricity is an important factor ia 

 crop growth has always found supporters in France. 

 Grandeau stated that plants protected from atmospheric 

 electricity by a wire cage made less growth than control 

 plants outside. Lesage confirmed this observation, but 

 found that silk thread caused as much retardation as wire, 

 so that the effect is not i ecessarily electrical : in point of 

 fact the rate of evaporation was considerably less under 

 the cage than in the open. 



" Instead of relying on atmospheric electricity Lemstrom 

 generated electricity on a large scale and discharged it from 

 a series of points fixed on wires over the plant. This method 

 has been used at Bitton, near Bristol, and studied on the 

 electrical side by Sir Oliver Lodge, on the botanical side 



