The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-02

FSiOptiISit VI pants IN lIghtS of different
colors, and for this purpose hothouses
composed Of red blue and green glass
have been constructed at Juvisy, near
Paris, says a writer in the ST. Louis Globe
Democrat. At that place there is an OBJ
servatory superintendent by the famous
French astronomer Flammarion. who in
response to a request by the United States
government has furnished a statement of
his results. He has grown vegetables of
various kinds also under lights of different
colors, thrown by an enormous prism in
bands covering successive strips of soil in
which the plants were set so that the de-
velopment of the latter exhibited to the
eye in a striking way the effects produced
1t seems to be proved by the experiments
in question that plants in general are in
t1uenced in their growth much more by
certain kinds Of light-rays than by others
For example, those grow IN the red hot
houses in some cases, become in a given
time four times as big as those exposed to
exactly similar conditions under ordinary
sunlight. Now, this seems quite wonder
full, and it is especially surprising to learn
that the poorest ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
amounting to failure-is obtained under
blue glass. Blue glass! Who does not re
member the craze created by the notion,
originated by Gen. Pieasanton, a Phila-
delphian, that animal life could be
brought to a surprisingly advanced condi- |
ton by exposure to blue rays? The blue
glass theory had its day. and was in due
time exploded.
Nevertheless, the most interesting phase
of the investigation started by this French
astronomer relates to the possible results
of rearing human beings or other animals
under red or otherwise colored lights.
They might be very surprising, indeed,
though it is hardly to be inferred from the
experiments described that a man twenty
four feet high could be raised under red
glass. Indeed, not all plants are similarly
responsive to red rays. Under that kind
of light lettuce grows enormously high
but is stringy and does not "head up"
properly.
Every animal, as well as plant, in the
world, may be said, in a sense, to be made
of suns rays. A human being is built of
assimilated substances created by the en-
ergy OF the sun. Hence the Importance, |
from an agriculture point of view, of the
Flammarion observatory, which makes a !
business exclusively of studying the influ-
enCe of the sun upon plants There are
sun spots, for example, which are suppos-
ed to have such large influence upon the
climate of the earth. Nobody is quite
certain as to the nature of sun spots, but
apparently they are due to enormous dis
turbances in the fire envelope of the solar
orb, sometimes creating flaming chasms
capable of swallowing half a dozen
globes like the terrestrial sphere without
any perceptble effect.
As is well known, there are a multitude
of colors in nature which are invisible to
the human eye. Beyond the red at one
end of the rainbow spectrum, and beyond |
the violet at che other end are vast color
regions as yet unknown to mankind. These |
together embrace a great majority of the |
light rays that reach the earth from the
sun. Something about them is known al |
ready; for example that the ultra-violet
rays are chemical rays, and that the in |
frared rays contribute far more than the |
visible light rays to the growth of pants |
From this latter fact differences NAV he |
drawn that have notable significance in |
connection with the extraordinary deve,op- |
ment of certain kinds of plants in the red |
hot house, the glass of which admits no
rays above the red of the spectrum.
Daylight is white, and one naturally
thinks of 1t as composed simply of color
less rays; but. of course. the fact is tho.
it is mixture of rays of ever so MANY
hues, comprising the few visible and moro |
numerous invisible colors. Now. from date |
already obtained by experimentation. If is |
evident that some of these ravs exert a |
very much more powerful influence uno,
VegetaDe lie than rays of other classes |
ana this Is one of the questions investigat
ed by Flammarion and his assistants In
Deco this particular branch Of the in |
quiry was the object for which the bot |
houses of different colors were constr,,otad |
A not mouse green hot house a blua bot |
house and hot house of ordinary o1ass |
We're placed side by side, and plants 80 |
the same species were cultivated unler |
exactly similar conditions as to soil tnro
perature, etc, in all
Inc req glass shuts out all but the RAYS |
at the red end of the rainbow spectrI1n, |
ana SO 1t is not surprising that nlants in |
the red hot house grow much faster ~, |
In the green, the blue or the white no,
mousse. For, as is well known. the lieh+ |
rays winch chiefly make all the veoet,-
ton of the earth are the red ravs an9 49,.
invisible rays beyond the red az he ,1o5,
er emo OF the spectrum. On the other
hauo me rays at the violet end of the /
RAINBOW belt have very little Influence on |
the plant growth, and so it's NOT surnrts
Ing to find that the plants in the blue hot |
house are scarce able TO sprout. and mes
ent at their best sickly and abortive as
pect. To reduce the matter 10 agnre,
plants in the red house attain a size ef'
teen times as great as in the blue house
In TRUTH the red light produces an effect |
equivalent to that of fertilizer
The experiment with lettuce was ,,or,, u,
teresting. As with other kinds of nlsnte
the growth in the blue dollhouse was az |
most nothing In the green dollhouse II |
was greater but still wretched In the
red dollhouse the lettuce instead of fnr1
nishlng a head" In the conventional mar
ner, ran up like Jacks beanstalll Ia con
siderable hight, as IL too anxious FOR
growth y follow the ordinary custom IF
its Kind. Furthermore, 1t blooned fftaer
days earlier than in the white or normal
hothouse On the other hand-as if 70
show that all plants are not alike from ma
lures point Of view-Indian corn, sub
measured In hight In a red hothouse 1S