X-RAY ON PLANT LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1932, Page 12

X-RAY ON PLANT LIFE

QUEER TRICKS PERFORMED. SOME REMARKABLE EFFECTS. . Workers in the laboratory of a large electric company are conducting a series of experiments to determine the effect of X-rays upon plant life. They have exposed seeds to the action of the rays for varying periods of time, and have observed a number of totally different results. It was found that in some cases Xrays caused the plants to mature very quickly. In other instances they destroyed the colouring matter and produced albino plants. Also twisted stems, double leaves, and white blotches have resulted from X-ray treatment. In the experiments »undertaken thus far the results have appeared to be matters of chance, but scientists hope that more detailed observations may give them knowledge of factors by which they will be able to control the growth of a plant with no ill effects.

Two grapefruit plants, which under normal conditions would not blossom until they were five or possibly ten years old, blossomed five weeks after the seeds, which had been treated with X-rays, were placed in the ground. Ordinarily grapefruit plants are several feet high before they flower. These were only two inches high. One seed, which was exposed for two minutes, produced a plant with normal leaf and flower coloration, but with leaves somewhat elongated and diminutive, and with a deficient root system. The other seed was exposed to X-rays for eight minutes, and produced an albino plant—that is, one lacking in colouring matter. The seeds were part of a quantity supplied by the college of agriculture of the University of California from stock ordinarily yielding uniform plants. The experiments were conducted in the laboratory of the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York. “It is hardly thought (hat the flowers could have matured into fruit,” said C. P. Haskins, one of the scientists who is should it be concluded that early Sower-X-ray treatment. Other rayed seeds produced such abnormalities as stems twisted into the appearance of corkscrews, double leaves, and white blotches. Still others produced apparently normal seedlings. So far it has been a matter of chance as to how the chromosomes and genes—those tiny but controlling factors of heredity—might be affected by the X-ray treatment of the seeds. Promising leads have been obtained in the work which is being done with seeds, bulbs, and plants of many species, but it is too early to make definite statements regarding the results attained,”