166 GERMINATION 



become electrically inert. This tuber will, in fact, keep 

 longer and grow better after being injured than any other 

 vegetable with which I am acquainted. 



Between the Potato and the Jerusalem Artichoke there 

 are several essential points of difference : 



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 from 

 Axs-fetm/na/j 



The latter is covered with root filaments, is distinctly 

 bi-polar as regards the ends, and does not seem to be provided 

 with so efficient a repair outfit as the Potato. In common 

 with the latter it has a marginal negative system and 

 several positive terminals, but it is probable, from the 

 number of root filaments, that instead of being dependent 

 upon the mother plant it derives its electrical supply directly 

 from the earth. 



It is, no doubt, new to be told that not only is every fruit, 

 every vegetable, but indeed every leaf of every vegetable 

 is an electrical cell which retains full activity during such 

 time as it is structurally perfect, but every addition to our 

 knowledge is new, in the sense that it is something we did 

 not know before. 



One of the earlier great authorities upon vegetable life, 

 Sachs, did not, so far as I am aware, carry out any exper- 

 ments in electro-biology but he came very near to the truth 



