ELECTRO-CULTURE. 
61 
ELECTRO-CULTURE. 
At a recent meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, Edward 
Harmer Sheppard, Esq., f.r.b.s., read the following interesting- 
paper on electro-culture, including an account of an experiment 
instituted in the garden of the Society during the last summer. 
“ In the early part of the past spring my attention was di¬ 
rected to the subject of promoting an increased growth of plants 
by means of some particular application of electricity or galvan¬ 
ism. Considering that this is quite a new subject, and at present 
very little understood, and that until the last few months it has 
never received that attention which its importance deserves, it is 
our duty to be very careful in our experiments, and very guarded 
in our inferences from them. The following description and 
remarks, therefore, are brought forward rather with a view to 
excite attention and induce further research, than to propound 
theories or to make assertions which, instead of promoting the 
object in view, might only tend to mislead. 
« It has long been believed that electricity produces a stimu¬ 
lating effect on vegetation. We read that as far back as the 
middle of the last century a Mr. Maimbray, of Edinburgh, an¬ 
nounced that he had succeeded in proving that single plants, 
separately electrified, grew more rapidly and vigorously than 
those which were not so treated; and since that time this ex¬ 
periment has been frequently repeated, and with the same lesults. 
It has been proved that the growth of a common Hyacinth in a 
glass is much accelerated by giving it daily a few sparks from 
the electrifying machine. 
“Sir Humphrey Davy likewise instituted experiments upon 
the germinations of seeds, and he noticed that voltaic electricity 
powerfully affects plants, and that they grow very rapidly near 
the negative pole of the voltaic battery, and not quite so rapidly 
near the positive pole. He also observed that drooping plants 
may be made to revive on the artificial application of electricity. 
A highly charged state of the atmosphere too causes a more 
healthy colour, and a more rapid development of leaf and branch ; 
every leaf, indeed, is proved to be a natural conductor of elec¬ 
tricity, collecting the electric fluid which surrounds it, and ap- 
