This experiment was repeated with the same results.  In the second experiment the plants receiving eighty-four hours of electric light, costing $3.50, were ready for market ten days before the plants in the dark house.  The influence of the light upon color of flowers was variable.  With tulips the colors of the lighted plants were deeper and richer than the others, but they faded after four or five days.  Verbenas were injured in every case, being of shorter growth and losing their flowers sooner than those in the dark house.  “Scarlet, dark red, blue and pink flowers within three feet of the light soon turned to a grayish white.”  Chinese primulas seven feet from the light were unaffected, but those four feet away were changed.  Lilac colors were bleached to pure white when the light struck them fairly.  An elaborate series of tables of the effect of the light is given in the paper.  The author believes it possible that the electric light may be used some day to pecuniary advantage in floricultural establishments.

These experiments naturally open up many questions.  Those which will be of most importance to the practical man will be such as relate to the benefits to be derived from the use of the electric light.  That electricity has a great effect upon vegetation can no longer be denied.  What remains now is to ascertain how to use the force with the most economy and to the best advantage.  If by its use early vegetables will be made earlier, bright flowers be made brighter, it will be a question of only a short time before it will come into general use.  To the student of plant physiology there are also many questions of interest, but into these it is not the intention to enter.  Prof.  Bailey’s general conclusions are, in part, as follows:  “There are a few points which are clear:  the electric light promotes assimilation, it often hastens growth and maturity, it is capable of producing natural flavors and colors in fruits, it often intensifies colors of flowers and sometimes increases the production of flowers.  The experiments show that periods of darkness are not necessary to the growth and development of plants.  There is every reason, therefore, to suppose that the electric light can be profitably used in the growing of plants.  It is only necessary to overcome the difficulties, the chief of which are the injurious influences upon plants near the light, the too rapid hastening to maturity in some species, and in short the whole series of practical adjustments of conditions to individual circumstances.  Thus far, to be sure, we have learned more of the injurious effects than of the beneficial ones, but this only means that we are acquiring definite facts concerning the whole influence of electric light upon vegetation; and in some cases, notably in our lettuce tests, the light has already been found to be a useful adjunct to forcing establishments....  It is highly probable that there are certain times in the life of the plant when the electric light will prove to be particularly helpful.  Many experiments show that injury follows its use at that critical time when the planetlet is losing its support from the seed and is beginning to shift for itself, and other experiments show that good results follow from its later use....  On the whole, I am inclined toward Siemens’ view that there is a future for electro-horticulture.”