804 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September 30, 1880. 
sized clumps. The flowers being freely produced, Crocus-like in 
form and pure white, render it especially pleasing at a time of 
year when the borders are fast losing the gay appearance they 
bore during the summer. In sheltered nooks upon the rockery 
this Zephyranthes is also very beautiful, and may be advanta¬ 
geously planted with the autumn-flowering Colchieum. 
“ It is of easy cultivation ; any well-drained border of rather rich 
soil near the base of a wall or similar sheltered position suiting 
it admirably. It increases by the production of offsets or young 
bulbs, which may be separated from the parent plant and trans¬ 
ferred either to pots or borders. Seed is also freely produced, 
but that mode of increasing our stock is slower than the other. 
However, as an autumn and late summer-flowering plant this 
species is very useful, and I recommend it to the attention of all 
lovers of hardy plants.” 
THE EFFECTS OF ELECTRICITY ON VEGETATION. 
On witnessing the destructive results of excessive oxygenation 
which presented themselves in the seeds killed by the positive 
electrode of the ba'tery, and as also produced in the stems and 
branches of trees and plants by the contact of rusting iron, it 
naturally created a desire to learn what would arise from the 
opposite arrangement of placing the iron in contact with the 
roots instead of the branches, and thus reversing the order of the 
metals in the plant case ; and no sooner did the thought arise 
than the necessary steps were at once taken to put it into practice. 
A small cylinder of sheet iron resting in a zinc pan was first half 
filled with drainage (this precaution was taken to prevent any 
possible access o zinc solution reaching the roots, as all zinc salts 
appear to be injurious), and the remainder with a compost of 
peat, loam, cocoa fibre, and sand, in which some half-dead Ferns 
just unpacked from Madeira were planted, but with very little 
hope of their recovering. They ve y soon, however, showed signs 
of life and were not long in being resuscitated, after which they 
began to grow vigorously, and continued to do so with consider¬ 
able luxuriance. Heflecting on this arrangement and its results 
it was directly perceived that the zinc was altogether superfluous, 
it being of the same electrical condition as the earth, and there¬ 
fore of no advantage whatever, and it was found to be equally 
effective without it. 
This same principle was then carried out on a more extended 
scale. Having a small conservatory situate in a confined part of 
a densely populated city, closely surrounded with high buildings 
together with a whole forest of smoking chimneys, and conse¬ 
quently within the influence of an atmosphere of the worst possible 
character, and one almost poisonous to plants, possessing in the 
highest degree that ‘‘want of strength” or the “air not strong 
enough ” which the gardeners say prevents their being able to 
grow Roses and other plants in the vicinity of large towns, this 
was deemed a very favourable subject for experiment. The struc¬ 
ture is facing the south, but gets the sun only in the middle of the 
day, and enjoying very little of it for several months in the 
winter. On the east, south, and west it is shelved with half-inch 
slate slabs supported by iron brackets neatly japanned (which 
latter now turns out to have been a mistake). The floor is of 
Minton’s tiles, and there are sufficient hot-water pipes to keep out 
the frost. Now, with these appliances it was hoped and expected 
that plants would bear their city quarters with some degree of 
satisfaction to their owner; but it was not so by any means. 
Plants “ bought in ” soon began to deteriorate in their appearance. 
Flowers became smaller and fewer, the soil turned musty, and 
mildew became a con-tant accompaniment. After various trials 
the following plan was adopted as being the most sightly and 
successful. A perforated trellis of cast iron, in sections a yard 
long, 8 inches wide, and half an inch thick (costing 3 d. per foot 
run), was fitted to cover the shelves and to serve as the immediate 
supports for the plants. Standing upon this the plants had their 
roots directly within the influence of the chemical action pertain¬ 
ing to the oxidation of the metal, and were consequently bene¬ 
fited thereby. The plants very quickly lost their unhealthy 
appearance and commenced growing freely, and, what is equally 
important, for the last few years not a trace of mildew has ever 
made its appearance. A plant of Polypodium vulgare var. Bwingi 
standing in an iron wire basket, but insulated from the floor by 
three wooden legs, and growing in an 8-inch pot, is now 2^ feet 
through, with fronds above 20 inches long and 6 to 7 inches wide. 
Many other plants now do equally well, and produce as healthy 
and almost as luxuriant foliage as can be obtained under ordinary 
circumstances in better localities. On the entire western side or 
end of the house a rockwork, formed of furnace clinkers, has been 
built up from the floor to between 8 and 9 feet high (enclosing 
the slate shelf), having all the overhanging parts fastened to the 
back wall with unprotected iron stays, and this again has been a 
complete success. The difficulty is rather to keep the occupants 
within bounds, and from becoming too luxuriant for the size 
of the house. Even that most fastidious of English Ferns, the 
Asplenium marinum, has made itself quite at home, producing 
tufts of fronds from a foot to 16 or 17 inches long, whilst seedlings 
come up profusely in every direction. 
Although it may be possible for some minute portion of the 
iron by becoming dissolved to find its way to the roots, it is not 
to this we have to attribute the effects described. The stimulus 
afforded to the plant is derived from the combining of the iron 
with oxygen. It is a well-kuown law that metals in their regu- 
line or bright state are insoluble in acids, but not so when they 
have combined with oxygen; hence it is not the metal direct that 
is dissolved, but its oxide or rust. In the chemical battery—com¬ 
posed of zinc, copper, or platanised silver, and sulphuric acid—the 
zinc is first oxydised and then dissolved, and it is this act of com¬ 
bining and being dissolved that furnishes the electricity, the 
quantity of which is always in a direct ratio with the quantity of 
zinc consumed. In the same manner electricity is evolved during 
the process of oxydation of the iron, which electricity then stimu¬ 
lates the roots within its reach to greater activity, forcing them to 
take in food to a proportionate degree. Now, as all chemical 
decompositions are attended by the development of electricity, it 
will be obvious that as all animal or vegetable matter in a decay¬ 
ing state is undergoing a chemical change, consequently mulch¬ 
ing the ground with any decaying material in a moist state will 
necessarily be a far more complex operation than is commonly 
supposed. In the usual dung hotbed the decomposition is accom¬ 
panied by heat, as everyone knows, and in Nature it is scarcely 
possible to have any one force developed without some other force 
accompanying it. 
By the modern doctrine of “ the correlation of the physical 
forces,” heat, light, electricity, magnetism, motion, and chemical 
action are all considered to be equally related to each other—that 
any of them may be converted into any other, or into all the others 
reciprocally, each one disappearing as some other or others make 
their appearance. Thus it may be said, in other words, that there 
is but one force, and that this force appears under different guises 
according to the mode of its development. Hence, when speaking 
of electricity in relation to organic life, it is wholly impossible to 
dissociate it from its congeners, beat, light, &c. From light as an 
agent, heat, electricity, and chemical action are prominent effects. 
From heat we derive motion and light, and chemical action as 
well as electricity as ordinary everyday commercial results. 
Were any persons to be asked what they understood by the term 
“electricity,” in all probability the answer would be ■“thunder 
and lightning 1 ” Now, this reply is, to a certain extent, both right 
and wrong. Electricity is the origin, but that which is seen and 
heard is only the result of the electric discharge. Rub a piece of 
amber or good red sealing wax briskly for a few seconds on the 
coat sleeve, and then present it to a few small scraps of thin 
paper, and these will immediately dart up and adhere to it. It is 
this attracting force that represents the electricity, just as the 
attraction of the magnet represents magnetism, whilst the motion 
of the paper is only the result. But this attracting force has one 
special feature which distinguishes it from the ordinary attraction 
of gravitation. After the pieces of paper shall have been in con¬ 
tact for a few seconds they will dart away again, and then cannot 
be re-attracted by the sealing wax or amber a second time ; yet if 
a piece of glass, which gives out the opposite electricity, be rubbed 
and presented they will adhere to this as they did originally to 
the wax or amber, the law being that opposite states attract, but 
similar states repel each other. In former times it was supposed 
there were thus two electricities which attracted each other; but 
the present belief is that there is only one which has undergone 
polarisation, the same as exhibited in the magnet. Hence it is 
the attraction of these two oppositely polar states which, recom¬ 
bining suddenly, produce the report and flash of light heard and 
seen in the tempest. The drrting away of the pieces of paper 
indicates a very important fact, by showing that certain bodies 
are capable of receiving and retaining an electric charge which 
regulates their future proceedings. Thus two clouds may become 
highly charged and expend their explosion harmlessly between 
themselves ; but when the earth and the clouds are opposed, and 
the discharge occurs from one to the other, there is then danger 
to all terrestrial occupants. 
The earth and the atmosphere are always, when in a normal 
condition, oppositely electric, and it is between these two con¬ 
ditions, not wheu they are in this highly explosive humour, but 
when they are apparently passive and unconcerned, that their 
influence upon vegetation is most effective. From the battery we 
obtain electricity, but from the electricity of the earth and air 
