CHLOROFORMING TREES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2143, 28 December 1920, Page 10

CHLOROFORMING TREES.

That plants are conscious of nervous Atimuli lias long been known; and the manner in wliioii they are affected by ihe latter closely resembles manifestations of a* like nature in animal life, lavs a "Dailv Chronicle" correspondent. • Thus the tendrils of certain climbing plants do not curl uniil they feel the touch of something which they can grip. The leaves of a clematis or a nasturtium, or the growths of a scarlet jfunner, will not twist into a spiral until they can clasp some supporting object. It is now also realised that plants derive stimulus from influences other than those which might be attributed to sunlight, moisture, or fertilisers. The experiments in electrifying crops point fce~4&is, and it is beginning to be realised that the spraying of potatoes in itself, quite apart from any question of Sisease or fertilisation, cacy. It is a "nerve tonic." Sir Jagadir Chunder Bose, the wellknown Indian scientist and authority >n the subject of nervous impulses in vegetation, has told us in a recent lecture that the chloroforming of trees may be successfully carried out, much in the same way and with the same object as when anaesthetics are applied to mimal life. For example, a tree which could not be transplanted without certain death WB9 safely moved whilst under the inHuence of chloroform, and that without feeling the shock. Anaesthetics have also been used by gardeners in the forcing of early blooms. Thus it has been proved that lilac tushes submitted to the fumes of chloroform or ether for 24 hours were thrown i»to a. deep sleep, with the. result that rben they *'came round" they behaved precisely as if they had passed through iheir normal winter rest. In the light of these facts it seems lighly probable that further investigations may enable us to apply nervous itimuli to plants in the interests of food nroduction.