96 BOTH SIDES OF THE BLUE GLASS QUESTION. 



duce flowers with readiness under this medium,' (now, if they do not pro- 

 duce flowers, how can they produce fruit?) 'but if, at the proper jDeriod, 

 they are brought under the red glass, the flowering and fruiting processes 

 are most effectively completed.' 



"Was there ever anything so absurd as this statement of differences in 

 the attributes of primary rays of light? You must, according to these 

 scientists, use three different processes to produce a vegetable j 1. Plant 

 your seeds under blue glass till they germinate. 2. After the germination^ 

 transplant the young plant and put it under yellow light, to get some stalks, 

 branches and leaves, but no blossoms; and, 3, transplant again, putting the 

 plants under red light, and you will have beautiful vegetables! And these 

 discoveries are called science, and the revealers of them philosophers. 



"In confirmation Mr. Hunt quotes a letter from Mr. C. Lawson, of Edin- 

 buro', an eminent seed merchant. This gentleman, as early as 1853, had 

 proved the value of blue light in accelerating the germination, and em- 

 ployed it practically in testing the value of the seeds coming into his hands 

 in the course of business. He found that seeds could be thus caused to 

 o-erminate in two to five days, instead of, as heretofore, in eight to fourteen 

 days; but he adds that he 'has always found the violet ray prejudicial to 

 the growth of the plant after germination.' ISTow, in my experiments with 

 seeds and plants under the associated blue and sunlights, which were com- 

 menced in April, 1861, 1 have obtained results which show that the germina. 

 tion of the seeds, the development of the leaves, branches and stems, the for- 

 mation of fruit buds, their flowering and the subsequent maturity of the 

 fruit, were all produced by the action of these associated lights. In the six- 

 teen years during which my experiments have been conducted, my grajae 

 vines have every year developed a growth of fifty feet in the season of 

 growth, maturing their wood, forming their fruit-buds for the ensuing season, 

 and have been more healthy and vigorous than any other vines of which I 

 have any knowledge. Last summer, an unusually hot season, I have been 

 informed by Mr. Dreer, a very intelligent dealer in plants, seeds, etc., in this 

 city, who visited, with some of the Centennial Commissioners from foreign 

 countries, the principal graperies in this neighborhood, that the foliage in all 

 of them that were visited was greatly burned and dried by the heat, while 

 in mine the leaves retained their freshness and green color till the begin- 

 ning of November. 



"Mr, Crooke says: 'Here, then, is a complete discrepancy, and either 

 Gen. Pleasonton on the one hand, or Messrs. Yogel, Hunt and C. Lawson on 

 the other, must be decidedly mistaken ;' and with a manliness that is highly 

 commendable in a scientist, he continues: 'One point of difl'erence between 

 Gen, Pleasonton's arrangements and those of the European experimenters 

 upon the influence of the various rays of light upon organic life is that the 

 latter, ourself included, submitted plants and animals to the sole and exclu- 

 sive action of blue, yellow or red light respectively, whilst in Gen. Pleason- 

 ton's experiments, the blue light has been used mixed (i. e. associated) in 



