The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-01-11
QUEER FACTS ABOUT coroRs.
Why the Sea Is Blue In Some Spots
and Green In Others.

Did you ever notice that there is no
blue food? We eat things green and red,
yellow aud yiolet-hesh, fish or plants in
all the colors of the rainbow except blue
Many deadly poisons are blue in color,
such as bluestone or the deadly night
shade flower The color stands in our
slang for everything miserable and de-
pressing But this is only one of a thou
sand queer facts about colors. I I
Heat a bar of iron, and the particle n
of the metal are set in motion, shakine
violently one against another. Present. !
the surrounding ether is set in motion e
large, slow waves, rolling through the
like the waves of the sea until they breaL
upon our skin and give us the sensatio
of heat. As the iron gets hotter eth,-
waves are set in. motion in immense nun
bers, travelling at more than, slightnin
speed and these break upon the eye, Civ
ing the sensation of red light.
The redhot iron. getting stll more heat
ed, throws out other sets Of waves still
smaller and more rapid-orange, yellow.
green, blue, indigo. violet-all the colors
of the rainbow. The eye cannot tell one
from another. The whole bundle of rays
mixed up gives us an impression of white
That is the glow from the r'white hot
iron, and such is the light from the still
greater brightness of the sun. Sunlight
is a bundle Of rays Of light--red, orange,
yellow, green. blue, indigo and violet all
mixed together The mixture of all col
ors is white light; the absence of all col
ors is utter darkness.
Nows pass a ray of sunlight through a
crop of water, and the colored rays are
split up and thrown in different direc-
tions. The sunlight shining through many
drops of falling rain after a shower is all
split up into colors, and the result is the
gorgeous rainbow The scattered spray
of a sea wave, of a waterfall or a foun-
tain makes little rainbows, caused in the
same way.
Each Kind of light has it's own special
uses. The red rays of light make the
leaves ofathe trees to grow and hasten all
rotting and decay. Moreover, if you cut
off the red rays plants will grow with
golden brown leaves instead of green.
The sea is blue because the water re-
fleets the blue rays of light, but shallow
/ seas are green because the blue light is
mixed with the yellow reflections from
eand and stones at the bottom. Green
is a mixture of blue and yellow. m ibis
weeds grow, and for want of the red
rays they have golden and tawry leaves
| Green and red seaweeds are tie ovt-p
| ton. and blue seaweeds are as rare as
blue leaves. At any rate. Land pants
| grown under green glass ought to turn
golden brown, like seaweed They do.
Experiment has shown that under green
| glass plants grow nearly as well as un-
der clear sunlight.
Under red glass nearly all plants grow
four times as quickly as under white
light grow to four times their usual
height and throw out a fine display of
green leaves. This is clear proof that
the red rays of sunlight cause the green
leaves to grow. This discovery will be
of immense help to gardeners who want
TO force their plants and to farmers try
ing to induce early crops of vegetables.
Blue glass has a-directly opposite eff
feet. Plants will neither grow nor die,
they languish and yet remain alive.
The blue makes them sleep. The effect
is exactly that of moonlight and star
light, when all plants take their natural
rest.-Cincinnati Commercial Tribune