2* 



be able to follow them in some of their trans- 

 formations. 



His process consists, first, in photographing 

 growing plants at suitable intervals, and, secondly, 

 by means of a somewhat complicated apparatus, in 

 passing rapidly before the eye the photographs of 

 the plants in their various stages of growth. Thus, 

 in a space counted by seconds, we may have passed 

 before our wondering eyes the birth, developing, 

 flowering, fruiting, and death of a plant. By re- 

 versing the order of the photographs we are amazed 

 to see the fruit evanesce into the flower, the flower 

 contract into the bud, the bud absorb into the stem, 

 and finally the stem disappear into the ground. 



By attaching a piece of fine platinum wire to a 

 growing plant, and fastening a small piece of crayon 

 to the other end of the wire, it is said that we may 

 have recorded on a rotating drum, covered with 

 white paper, tracings showing its growth. If we 

 cover the drum with narrow strips of platinum foil, 

 and connect them with one pole of a galvanic bat- 

 tery, and the wire attached to the plant with the 

 other, and then place an electric bell in the circuit, 

 we will hear, as the drum rotates, the ringing of the 

 bell when the wire presses upon the foil, and have 

 silence when the wire presses upon the spaces be- 

 tween the strips of foil. As plants are said to grow 

 most rapidly between the hours of four and six in the 

 morning, if we make the strips sufficiently narrow, 

 or have a rapidly growing plant, we will have the 

 bell rung quite frequently at our waking hour. 



