PLANT ENERGY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 August 1926, Page 11

PLANT ENERGY.

High up ou the slopes of Darjeeling, and in a fragment of forest preserved in the heart of Calcutta, trees are responding to human signals, writing their life-stories, and even showing; a change of mood at the approach of certain individuals. Such is the story Sir Jaga'dis Bose, the scientist, told the British Indian Union in London recently. These manifestations, he said, are the result of experiments he conducted at two institutes founded by him for students of nature. The trees in the forest land at the back of the great institute in Calcutta, and in undisturbed natural country round Darjeeling, are equipped with little devices whereby, Sir Jagadis says, they are able to reply to signals. He continued: “Hitherto we have regarded trees and plants as not akin to us because they are the voiceless of the'world, but I will show you that they are sensible creatures in that they really exist, and can answer your questions. “When it receives a shock the leaf of this mimosa droops, and we have invented. an apparatus by means of which this answer can be converted into intelligible script. Then, finally, the hieroglyphic had to be deciphered. “We attached the drooping leaf to a lever, seeking to get the response actually written on paper. But the resistance of movement over paper was too great, so the lever was set to vibrate at 1000 times a second, and a musical note was sounded. Now we could measure the effect on the lever to a thousandth part of a heart-beat. “Our hearing hears through eleven octaves, but we can only see through one octave of light. Anything not ranging between led and violet we cannot see. Yet the plant actually sees the ultra-violet, and even these ether waves that bring wireless concerts to us. We do not want to see these signals. (Daughter, j “It is not unlikely that plants have a sixth sense. In certain of my experiments I have noticed—l say it with caution; because I do not want to appear to magnify the truth when the truth exists and we intend to find it —that while a plant was recording a. throbbing, the pulsing was affected by the approach of certain people, but became normal again when they went away. Generally they took 12. minutes to recover from the ‘blow.”