IMPORTANT PARTICULARS ON ELECTRO-VEGETATION. 
peculiarly manifest from the following ex- 
periments of the Abb^ Mazeas, made in the 
months of June, July, and October. He 
erected an iron rod, 370 feet in length, on 
an elevation of 90 feet above the horizon. 
Being insulated by silken cords, sheltered 
from the rain, at Chateau de Maintenon, 
when he began his experiments on the 17th 
of June, the electricity of the air was sensi- 
bly felt every day, from sun-rise till seven 
or eight in the evening, except in moist 
weather, when he could perceive no signs 
of electricity. In the driest nights of the 
summer he could discover no ^gns of elec- 
ti icity in the air ; but it returned in the 
morning when the sun began to appear 
above the horizon, and vanished in the 
evening, about half an hour after sun-set. 
The strongest common electricity of the at- 
mosphere during that summer (1753) was 
perceived in the month of July, on a very 
dry day, the heavens being very clear, and 
the sun extremely hot. The distance of ten 
or twelve lines was then sufficient for the ap - 
proach of light particles to the conductor, 
in order to see them rise in a vertical direc- 
tion, like the filings of iron on the approach 
of a magnet ; whereas, in ordinary dry wea- 
ther, the wire attracted the dust at no great- 
er distance than three or four lines.* I am 
unable to conceive of any facts which can 
more directly and evidently show that elec- 
tricity, in common with light and heat, de- 
rives its origin from the sun as its source and 
centre ; it is shown to accompany him with 
the same constancy as light and heat, and to 
exist with the greatestintensity in union with 
his intensest beams. Some observations made 
by me in the course of the last summer appear 
admirably to accord with this conclusion. By 
inverting glass jars upon the soil in the day 
and night seasons in generally dry weather, 
I observe that, when neither the light and 
heat of the sun, nor his heat when the light 
was excluded, would extract any moisture 
from the earth, moistui’e was copiously given 
out from it during the absence of the sun, 
which was again absorbed on his return. As 
these effects appear to be the reverse of the 
ordinary results of light and heat upon moist 
bodies, I can only account for it from the 
opposite electrical states of the earth and 
atmosphere in the presence and absence of 
the sun. During the continual dispersing 
of the solar rays in the atmosphere by 
day it is positively electrified with respect to 
the earth, the moisture of which being also 
negative, does not combine with the fluid 
in the form of vapour ; but, on the contrary, 
absorbs it while remaining in the liquid 
state. As night approaches, on the other 
• Priestley’s History of Electricity, pp. 363, 
364, 
477 
hand, large quantities of moisture having 
transpired from the leaves, which, together 
with the extraction of oxygen from them in 
the form of gas, occupies a large portion of 
the solar rays in the atmosphere, the small 
qnantity which is left in the soil combining 
with the rays which it has imbibed, they 
become positive in regard to the atmosphere, 
the superabundant solar or electric fluid 
combines with the residuum of water in 
sufficient quantities to transform it into va- 
pour, in which form it rises to be almost 
immediately recondensed in dew, by the 
attraction of the fibrous and other acute 
extremities of the tender herbs. 
What the reciprocal effects produced by 
the mutual action of the atmosphere and of 
plants upon each other actually are, is so 
beautifully shown in the experiment to which 
I have alluded in the Atlas for August 24, 
1828, that I am tempted to transcribe it : — 
“ For the double purpose of ascertaining 
the power of spires in modifying the elec- 
tric relation of the atmosphere and the earth, 
and in effecting the progress of vegetation, 
by their electric influence, M. Astier insu- 
lated a sextuple spire of the gleditzia tria- 
canthus, at the top of his house, and 
brought a wire from it to an insulated flower- 
pot, in which were planted five grains of 
maize ; a similar sowing was made in an 
uninsulated pot for the purpose of compari- 
son. The experiment continued from the 
6th to the 20th of June, including two stormy 
days. The electrometer gave considerable 
signs of electricity in the flower-pot, and by 
using the condenser sparks were produced. 
The electrified grains were found to pass 
more rapidly than the unelectrified grains 
through the first periods of vegetation. 
When Bengal rose-trees were submitted to 
the same experiment, the flowers of the elec- 
trified plant appeared more rapidly and 
more abundantly than in the other case.” 
The narration is brief, and one important 
particular seems not to have been determined, 
viz. whether the electricity plus or mi- 
nus ; though, from the foregoing considera- 
tions, little doubt can be entertained that the 
fluid issuing from the sun had rendered the 
atmosphere thus strongly positive, in a re- 
gion in which his beams are so copiously dis- 
pensed. Admitting this to have been the fact, 
here is a clear illustration of the principle 
that the atmosphere, receiving a constant 
supply of electric fluid from its great source 
in the centre of the solar system, is continu- 
ally imparting of its superabundance to the 
vegetable kingdom through its acute extre- 
mities, and thus causes or promotes its ger- 
mination and growth — while a portion of it 
being transmitted to the earth, that approach 
