The Republican., 1900-08-02
INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS.
French Scientist Carefully Studies
the Effect of Alcohol OH
Plants.

The general effect of alcohol On the
human system is too commonly DEM
onstrated to make special experiment
necessary. Plants, however, cannot
obtain this particular drug so easily,
and their behavior WREN alcoholized
must be made a subject of scientific in
vestigation. Such a study has been
made by Louis Adrien Levat, who de-
scribes his experiments in the Revue
Scientifque.
His investigation took place in the
gardens of NJ. Hildebert Richard at
Avignon, France, and its result is not
such as to warrant the administration
of alcoholic liquids to plants, unless
it is desired to put a speedy end 10
their existence. Alcohol, in fact. seems
to act on the plant more quickly and
fatally than on the man. Says M.
Levat, in his report:
My experiments were made on two
adult geranium plants in full leaf and
flower, II months old, sprung from the
same plant, growing in two pots of the
same form and equal dimensions, and
containing the same weight of mois-
tened alluvial soil.
These two plants were first observed
on the 10th of August last, after which
time they stood in sheltered place
in identical conditions as regards air
and light. On that day, at six p. m,
the plant A, the less vigorous of the
two, having several leaves bordered
with yellow, was watered with 20
centiliters (about one-half pint) of
spring water. The plant b, the more
vigorous, with normally green leaves,
was watered with 20 centiliters of di-
luted butylic alcohol.
On the next day, August II, theplant
B had symptoms of turning yellow ia
all its leaves, which had a peculiar
odor, very different from that of the
| normal plant, and slightly etheric.
| The watering was repeated at the
same hour.
On August 70, although the plant A
had grown more vigorous (the yellow
border tending to disappear from the
| leaves, and its stem remaining verti-
caD, the stem of the plant b fell over
at right angles, the calyX bending and
| the flowers touching the edge of the
| flower-pot. The petals began to drop
off and the leaves all turned toward
| the ground. At the same time melano-
sis (blackening) appeared on all the
| leaves.
On the 18th all the leaves on the plant
B, still dropping downward and almost
entirely covered with melanosis, folded
up and clung stiffiy to the stalk. The
sepals of the calyX were dried and
blackened, and all the red petals had
! dropped off. The last watering took
place the evening of the 18th; and on
the following morning, although the
plant A was superbly green and filled
with blossoms, the plant B, after alb
sorption of so centiliters of alcohol,
showed a notable decrease of nutrition
and a lethargic aspect approaching
| coma.
/ did not push the alcoholization any
further, and after taking up the plant
! 3, l examined sections of the stem,
branches and roots, and found that
they had undergone profound modi-
fications. All the tuberous tissues
| were OF Qdrk VINE Color, ana Ine
whole was impregnated with alcohol.
Microscopic examination showed a
stoppage of the circulation and modi-
fication of the stem with obliteration
of most of the medullary rays. The
rootlets, dry and burnt, had turned
reddish-black. Some parts had kept
green in the main stem, but the stop
page of circulation was complete in
the branches.
The parts that seemed to have suf-
fered most in the organism of the alco-
holized plant were the bark, the radio
ular tunic, the leaves and the flowers.
Thus, the experiment shows that the
absorption of butylic alcohol at 90 de-
grees by a full-grown red geranium, to
the amount of so centiliters, sufficed
in four days to affect the plant with
alcoholism, vhich was shown by
notable weakening of the vegetative
life and symptoms of poisoning, with
a special odor throughout all parts of
the plant, partial burning, melanosis
and geotropism of the leaves.-L
erary Digest.