Abstract
PROF. SCHÜBELER of Christiania, who for nearly thirty years has been engaged in observing the influence exerted by differences of climate on vegetation, has published the result of his observations in recent numbers of our Norwegian namesake, Natttren. The first of the series of his observations, which he has given in detail, refer to winter-wheat, and were undertaken with the special view of noting what effect the almost unbroken sunlight of the short Scandinavian summers had on plants raised from foreign seed. The experiments were made with samples of grain from Bessarabia and Ohio, and in both cases it was found that the original colour of the grain gradually acquired each year a richer and darker colour —the difference being perceptible even in the first year's crop— until it finally assumed the yellow-brown tint of other homegrown Norwegian winter-wheats. Similar results were obtained with maize, different kinds of garden and field peas and beans, and certain other garden plants, as celery, parsley, &c. In no case has Dr. Schübeler found that an imported plant, capable of being cultivated in Norway, loses in intensity of colour after continued cultivation; while in regard to many of the common garden flowers of Central Europe, he believes it may be asserted with certainty, that after their acclimatisation in Norway, they acquire an increase of size, as well as an augmentation of colour. These altered conditions are more forcibly manifested the further north we go, within the limits of capacity of vegetation for different plants. Thus it has been observed by Prof. Wahlberg of Stockholm, that Epilobium angustifolium, Lychnis sylvestris. Geranium sylvaticum, and many other plants common to Lapmark and the more southern districts of Sweden, attain in the former a size and brilliancy of tint unknown in the latter. The change in the case of Veronica serfyllifolia and Trientalis europœa is remarkable; the former changing as it goes further north from a pale to a dark blue, and the latter from white to rose-pink. It is noteworthy that a tinge of red is a common characteristic of the vegetation of the Scandinavian Fjælds; this being observable alike in blue, yellow, green, and white colours.
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The Effects of Uninterrupted Sunlight on Plants . Nature 21, 311–312 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021311a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021311a0