Arizona republican., 1898-11-10
EFFECT OF COLOR ON PLANTS
Their Varied DevcIoEEcnf UheE Grown ia Different ColoreG
 Houses.

Some very curious experiments have been made recently with regard to the development of plants in lights Of diff ferent c0lOTs, and for this purpose hot houses composed of red, blue and green glass have been constructed al Juvisy, near Paris. At that place there is an observatory, sIIperintended by the fa- nous French astronomer Flammarion, who in response to- a request by the United States government, has furnish ed 9 statement of his results. He has grown vegetables Cf various kinds also under lights Of different c0lors, thrown by an enormous prism in bands cover ing successive strips of soil i'll which the plants were set, so that the deveI- Opment Of ths latter exhibited to the eye in a striking way ,he effects pro duced.
 It seems to be proved by the experi- nents in question that plants in gen. eral are influenced in their growth much more by certain kinds Of light rays than by others. For example, those grown in the red hot house i'll some cases become in 2 given time four times as big as thOs9 exposed to exact ly simila" conditions under ordinary sunlight. The poorest developments practically amounting to failUre-is ob- tained under blue glass.
 4 red hos house, a green hot house, a blue hCt house, and a hot house of ordinary glass were placed side by side, and plants of the same species were cultivated under exactly similar conditions as to soil, temperature, etc, i'll all.
 Plants in the red house attained q size ffte5n times as great as in the blue house. The red light produced an effect equivalent to that Of a fertilizer.
 The experiment with lettuce was very interesting As with ochsr kinds Of plants, the growth in the blue hot house was almost nothing. Tn the green hot house it was greater, but still Wretched. h the red hot house the lettuce, instead cf furnishing "hs2d" in the conventional manner, ran up like Jacks beanEtaIk to 9 con- siderable height, as if too anxious fer growth to follow the ordinary custom of it's kind Furthermore it blOOGled fifteen days earlier than in the white, or normal hCt house. Indian corn, subjected 10 precisely similar cOndi- tions, measured in height in red hot house eighteen inches. in the green hot house eight inches, and in r-he blue hot house six inches. Beans blo0med and fruited equally well in the white and red hot houses, but perished in the green and blue Peas bl00med in all the hot houses except the blue. Only the peas in the red and white houses fruited. Grape vines in the red house developed most, but seemed to lack vigUr Perhaps the most interesting experiments were made with various fruit producing plants. It was found that three strawberry plants in the blue hot house produced fiTe small ber- ries A like number Of plants, reared under conditiCrs exactly similar in the green hot house. yielded twelve Der ries. Three more in the red house brought forth twenty-five berries, while three in tha white house pro duced seventy :y-thrce. The berries grown in the white house were nearly twice as large as the bese grown in the other houses. The red house being sec ord in this respect. The strawberries grown under cOlored lights were wa tery and insipid.
 Plants eve their colors chisfly to light. For example, the green color of leaves, due to the presence Of a sub stance called "chlorophyu," can be produced only in the light. l. is the same way With the brilliant nues of nowers II Fl2mnaTion nas found that under red, green CT blue glass li- laos become absolutely white.
 Special experiments were made With a view to ascertaining tha effect of elec~ tric light upon plans. It appears that such light exerts much the same infu- ence upon them as sunlight does, only in 2 smaller egree-Boston Trans cl.iT1f