TREES UNDER CHLOROFORM

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 72, 18 December 1920, Page 11

TREES UNDER CHLOROFORM

Sir Jagadir Chunder Bose, the wellknown Indian scientist and authority on tho subject of'nervous impulses in vegetation (writes a contributor of a London paper), has told us in'a recent lecture that' the chloroforming of. trees may be successfully carried out, much in the 6amo\wuy and with the same object as when anaesthetics aro applicd-to animal life. t...:

l'or example, a tree : which could not be transplanted without ■ cel'tain death was safely moved: whilst under .the influence, ot chloroform, and that without feeling the shock. : 1 Anaesthetics havo also been used by gardeners in tho forcing-. o£ oarly. blooms. Thus it has been proved, that lilac bushes submitted - to the fumes, ot' chloroform or ether for Uiventy-four hours were thrown into a deep sleep, with tho result tliat when they "came round" they behaved 'precisely lis if they had passed through - their normal winter rest, and, thinking the spring had come, imrncdiivfcly burst-into leaf . and blo-.eom at Christmas. In tho light of these facts it seems highly probable that. further investigations may enable 1 us to apply nervous stimuli'to plants in the interest of food production. ■ •. OncoVw.c leavn-v [how,-, ,t« i.coptroh.tho.w, nervous- impulses :in. vegetation,.which, we laiow exist, to stimulate .. them •, or. -.-.tb deadon, ilhcui at will, then the' practical application of that knowledge shoJltl produce results of incalculable commercial i raluit