STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 395 



same. Keep in mind the fact that each possesses its own indi- 

 viduality, having an imperceivable constituency peculiar to 

 itself, and locally occupies a different angle from all the rest in 

 respect to its receptive or radiative force under the ethereal 

 action of heat and cold waves. One tree responds, another does 

 not so well respond; in other words, the undulations of the ether 

 conveying the heat or cold waves are synchouous with the one 

 and jarring in the other. Perhaps an analagous illustration will 

 aid us here. Sing into a piano; a certain string responds. Vary 

 the pitch of your voice; the first string is silent, but another an- 

 swers back. Change again the pitch; the first two cease to 

 vibrate, and a third awakes to melody. As you alter the pitch, 

 you change the form of motion communicated by your voice to 

 the air, which in wave-action trills upon strings that are in 

 accord. If a heavy blow be struck upon the sounding-board, 

 every string will feel it, catching up what molecularly corre- 

 sponds in pitch, those of higher tension with sharper report, 

 perhaps injuring their sonorous properties. If our data be cor- 

 rect and illustration applicable, it is obvious that it will make 

 no material difference ivhere the tree is struck by the calorific 

 waves — unless position gives difference of temperature; but it is 

 certain that all parts of the plant, from atoms to cells, by reflex 

 action are affected; and the hurtful jar will be at the weakest 

 point — in the root, or stem, or twig, or leaf, on the north or 

 south side, or any other side that is vulnerable. As a blow or 

 disease centres in the weakest organ, so any adverse influence 

 lodges where the plant is weakest. It is no matter of sur]3rise, 

 therefore, that our plants, being diversely located and condi- 

 tioned, are diversely injured by the same force at work. What- 

 ev^er breaks down the nerve filaments of the human brain, or 

 the cellular tissues of a plant, is sure ruin. Where a weakness 

 obtains through starvation, gluttony, or other debilitating 

 agency, a plant is, of course, the more liable to succumb under 

 the trial of its strength. If one ingredient only is deficient, say 

 carbonic acid, which furnishes mainly all the vegetable material 

 out of which the plant is evolved, or if robbed of its sustenance 

 by a too thick relationship with other plants, but a slight jar 

 may hasten its death. To live in our battling world, a plant, 

 like an animal or a human being, must inherit and acquire 

 healthful tendencies. Calorific waves fall upon it like so many 

 strokes of a hammer, and, if long continued, crumble or weaken 

 its molecular structure. It is to a plant what a "sunstroke" is 



