ELECTRIC CULTIVATION IN RELATION TO HORTICULTURE. 401 



ELECTRIC CULTIVATION IN RELATION TO HORTICULTURE. 

 By B. H. Thwaitb, F.C.S. 

 (Lecture given October 1, 1907.) 



The solution of the problems offered by the many mysteries associated 

 with the growth and development of plants has fascinated many brilliant 

 men of science, and link by link the chain of knowledge has been 

 forged, so that in these days it is possible to construct a chain that, if 

 only approximately, symbolises the cycle of operations which in its grand 

 unity represents life, and, subject to reliance on solar influences, one 

 that also represents the complete cycle of the conservation of energy, 

 the conception of which immortalised the name of Meyer, of Heilbronn.* 

 The nature of the complete cycle, uniting in its embrace both animal 

 and vegetable life, is the most impressive fact in the whole range of our 

 knowledge of natural causes and effects. Once we examine each link in 

 the chain forming this great cycle, we recognise how deeply we are 

 indebted to the beautiful processes associated with the growth of a plant 

 for our very existence, and the enjoyment of that existence. Each petal 

 and flower of a plant should, indeed, be worshipped by man, not alone 

 for the fruit it foretells, but for the beauty of form, colour, and fragrance 

 it presents to us as elements of its relationship to the other (the animal) 

 branch of organic life, to which it acts as the silent and self-immovable 

 servant. 



It is realised, at least by certain French savants, that a trait 

 resembling intelligence is possessed by plants. That they may even be 

 imagined to serve as friends in distress is well known to all the readers 

 of Chateaubriand's exquisite literary creation "La Picciola." Let 

 anyone who desires to realise, as in duty bound one ought, the many 

 and wondrous signs of marked intelligence or instinct of flowering 

 plants, carefully read Maurice Maeterlinck's recent work " L'Intelligence 

 des Fleurs." 



The omniscient Creator has selected the green leaf, so characteristic 

 of vegetable life, to act as the connecting link between the sun and 

 life, and through this link and by a series of beautiful operations, the 

 wastes ©f the processes constituting animal life are assimilated, and (as 

 a result of luminous or electrical stimuli) ultimately form foodstuffs for 

 the support of animal life (fig. 62). 



The remarkable operations by which the wastes from animal organic 

 processes are absorbed, assimilated, and utilised in supporting plant life 

 may be briefly described as follows : — 



The essential food elements of plants are carbon (which the leaves of 

 plants absorb from the ambiant atmosphere, in which it exists as the 

 carbon-dioxide gas exhaled by animals), nitrogen (which the plant by 



* Herr Meyer died in absolute desperation, his theory completely ignored. 



