San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-23

pure WHITE lily ACTUALLY SnuQQerS With
horror when dirty hand touches it. Not
because the lily has any consciousness of
how its immaculate bloom is smirched, but
because the dirty fingers clog the stomata
which must be kept clean at all hazards
or the blossoms wither away. 1t seems
not without purpose that lily is white.
Strike sensitive plant and its leaves
fold up; touch it with fire and the action
is twofold. I The leaves shrink away and
fold up and the branch bearing them drops
sharply away from the region of the tor
menting flames. How does this differ in
any way from human reactions? asks DR..
Bose.
Every vegetable growth likes the taste |
of sugar, so DR.. Bose found QUIT helps /
them to grow. Turnips, carrots and beets
store sugar in their underground tubers,
and bacteria have fondness for certain u
kinds of salts. AS DIR. Bose revealed, these
microscopic creatures-the lowest form of
plant life-will even tackle poison if it !
contains their favorite dish of potassium
salts. Another thing, bacteria live strict
ly within the requirements of the Volstead
law-they are total abstainers from al
cohol.
Taste plays remarkable part in the
formulation of moss. If the male spor
was not a regular tippler for malic acid
that only the female supplies, there wof aid
probably be little or no moss in the wot.l6@
One of DIR. Bosses delicate machinesbre
cords the exact rhythm of leafs 55ulsa
ton. A needle sets it down in dots on
piece of smoked glass. He doses the sub
ject with alcohol, and the curve OF tho
machine shows exhilaration. He gives I'd
carbon dioxide, and the plant shows un-
nlstakable signs of illness.
Every farmer knows that his wheat NAV
be underfed or overfed DR.. Bose can
tell just when any plant is getting enough
food and when too much is doing it harm.
If plant is tired or i'll, as it sometimes
becomes when he subjects it 20 series of
electric shocks, its response became slower
and slower. And the ingenious devices
have discovered from the breathing of
vegetables that the average plant sleeps
al hlgnt ana lies almost IN a period of
torpor between 6 and 8 a. m.
Carbonic acid gas produces marked
depression in any plant, and glycerine ex-
cites 1t. Under ether a plant becomesl
senseless, and when bathed in poison gives
up the ghost and dies of commissions. Thus
plants, like animals, grow tired and re-
joice; despond and become exhilarated
but in dollhouse they grow so soft and
fabby that, like children continuously
indoors, they are almost incapable of en-
joying their existence
OF course, DIR. Bose premises all his dis
coverles on the existence of nerve energy
IN plants. But, as matter of fact, scien-
lists have never been able to find any or
gained nervous system in plants. Fran
CTS Darwin explained that the nervous re-
spouse in plants was made possible be-
cause the protoplasm in each cell respond !
ed to varying emotions, and through holes
IN the cells there was an overflow of proto,
plasm from one cell to another, which car
ried the response through the affected por-
ton of the plant.
Royal A. Dixon, a well-known Ameri-
can observer, says: "'Trees are far more
sensitive than men, and in some of, them
is discerned a strangeness of expression
that is difficult to understand Only a
rash and presumptuous person would dare
say trees are not endowed with conscious
ness, no matter how infinitely small they
may be-"
Scientists have known trees in love to
do the most remarkable things. The In
dian fig tree will actually send out shoots
like vine if its mate happens to grow
some distance away, and thus reach out
to embrace her. And they have the story
of the palm tree which did not produce
fruit for two seasons because another
palm that had become the object of its
affection grew so far away, and it could
not be consoled until some powder from
its blossom was scattered over the loved +
ones branches. Then the tree began to
bear again.
An example of the maternal sacrifice is
seen in the gum amber tree, which actual |
ly plants the seeds of its young within it.
self. Then it is ready to die. Certainly
there is much to bear out the ideas of
Darwin and DR.. Bose regarding the intel
ligence of vegetable folk by the habit of |
the scarlet pimpernel of closing its flower
pods even before the coming of inclement
weather. The compass plant is a true
barometer, always pointing toward the
north. And there are any number of
plants that open their blossoms at the
same time every day.
As DR.. Bose has said
eve have now before the minds eve
the whole organism of the moving, per-
ceiving and responding plant-the various
and separate kindred phenomena are
thus thrown down, and the animal and the
plant, which seem to be multiform unity
in single ocean Of being"