60 



ductive element in plant-life as something indifferent and 

 unimportant, and that flowers depend therefore more 

 exclusively than foliage upon manures, a fact already long 

 since remarked by horticulturists. 



From recent times many scientists have begun to re- 

 sort to the spectral analysis when investigating cosmic 

 phenomena of light. By help of the spectrum, which 

 divides the star light into its constituent parts, the pos- 

 sibility of comparing these lights with our own earthly 

 lights, produced by incandescence and combustion of va- 

 rious metals and gases, has been arrived at. Thus the 

 coincidence of the light shed by earthly matter with some 

 rays falling from a planet and received into the spec- 

 trum justifies us in assuming that this ray is derived from 

 the combustion on the planet in question of the same 

 matter. But when we submit the rays of real moonlight, 

 and the rays of an electric lamp of YablochkofPs system 

 in the chamber of the spectroscope we find that the re- 

 sults are perfectly identical. Inasmuch then as Yabloch- 

 koff's electric lantern is the product of magnetism, it is 

 evident that moonlight is also a magnetic phenomenon. 

 The latest experiments with the Yablochkoff lamp in 

 America have borne striking witness to its vitalising in- 

 fluence. Plants placed in a room lighted by these lamps 

 not. only survived, but grew rapidly, and developed abun- 

 dant leafage, a firm strong stem, and stoutly burched 

 roots. Such evidence proves very clearly that electric 

 light in nature is a vital moving power, and the moon, 

 presenting as it does a colossal electric lamp, has there- 

 fore a very obvious aim and function. 



Experiments with electric light are carried out also 

 in our St. Petersburg Imperial Botanical Gardens, and 

 have afforded excellent proof of the salutary effects of 

 this light on vegetable growth. They were more parti- 

 cularly successful in the case of araoukaria, a tree having 

 the general form of a luxuriant green yew. Generally, 

 whether in conservatories or in the open air, this tree grows 

 with unequal foliage, three sides developing a denser 



