The American papers have been more than usually imaginative lately
on the subject of the stimuhie given by bine rays to the growth of plants and animals. A blue-glass houte will, according to their theory, double the size of plants kept in it, and a few blue- ray baths cure the worst spinal complaints. Unfortunately, how- ever, for these cheering myths, as Mr. Thistleton Dyer, Assistant- Director in the Royal Gardens at Iiew, showed, ina lecture on " Plant-Growth," delivered at the London Institution on Monday afternoon, the blue rays in sunlight " actually have a retarding effect on growth,"—and it is to the blue rays that this retard- ing effect is limited. Mr. Thistleton Dyer even explained the zeovenients of plants towards the light as "probably due to the etirVature of the sterna, in consequence of the illuminated side gicivring more slowly than that which is shaded." It is curious that the ingenuity of American inventors Should have hit on the riot contrary of the truth. Or was it due to the fancy of a 4 blie4tOcking,' Who wanted to get rid Of the opprobrium attaeh- Ingle the colour, and made a denh in the vOrong direction ?
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