70 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



B. Growth Acceleration Effect of Anesthetics upon 

 Plants in a State of Rest. 



While the study of the effect of ether and other similar substances 

 upon the tissues of plants in active growth served to show the close 

 physiological relationship between plants and animals it failed to 

 give any e\'idence of an after stimulating effect upon plant growth. 

 The discovery of this phenomenon did not occur until some twelve 

 years later (1890) when Dr. W. Johannsen of the Royal Danish 

 School of Copenhagen, Denmark, conceived the idea that the 

 normal resting period of plants might be very materially abridged 

 and their growth accelerated by the use of ether, or chloroform. 

 His first experiments were performed upon willows and bulbous 

 plants. The results secured from these plants were so satisfactory 

 that in subsequent experiments he included lilacs, viburnums, 

 azaleas, deutzias, and other ligneous plants which gave even more 

 marked success. The results of these investigations were first 

 made public by Johannsen in 1893 in a very interesting paper 

 presented before the Royal Academy of Sdences of Copenhagen. 

 These and later experiments were embodied in a brochure pub- 

 lished by Johannsen in 1900 (15). The publicity attendant upon 

 the presentation of Johannsen's paper in 1893 quickly awakened 

 an interest among horticulturists in other parts of Europe in the 

 commercial possibilities of stimulating plants into active growth 

 by the aid of anesthetics. Among those who have taken a more or 

 less prominent part in the development of this new phase of horti- 

 cultural practice may be mentioned the names of Aymard (1), 

 Bellair (2), Beltz (3), Charmeux (5), Drude, Ledien and Naumann 

 (6), Harris (11), Harms (10), Jannock (14), Leblanc (16), Ledien 

 (17), Lemoine (18), and Maumene (20). 



In America as previously stated, outside of experimental work 

 carried on at the New York (Cornell), Missouri, and Vermont 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations, little attention has been given 

 to the subject of plant etherization. 



