ignificance of the thunderbolt
which has been adopted as the symbol of the institution. He explained
also the special uses to which the various parts of the buildings would
be put. The fact was brought out that the entire building and grounds
had been designed to suit the special needs of the Institute and care
had been taken to make it as far as possible self contained. An
interesting feature of the garden close to that portion which forms the
residence of Sir Jagadis was the open platform perched above two trees,
transplanted under anaesthetic conditions. A variety of apparatus is
displayed under these trees and the platform is intended for
observation or meditation or both. Dr. Bose here explained how trees
when transplanted frequently died under the shock of the operation just
as human being sometimes died, not from an operation but from the shock
caused thereby. Similarly he had discovered and proved that trees could,
like human beings, go through severe operations and survive the shock,
if placed under the influence of an anaesthetic.

SOME PHENOMENA OF PLANT LIFE

The Professor explained next other experiments which he had performed on
plants and whose results had exhibited the close parallel which plant
life bears to human life. With the aid of another delicate instrument he
showed how the growth of plants can be influenced by drugs and the
demonstration on the screen of the manner in which the slow growth of a
plant can be thus expedited was one of extraordinary interest. One was
able to see the flame of life moving up the screen and recording at
intervals the stages of growth, a lengthening of the intervals between
each recorded glow illustrating the acceleration of growth as soon as
the drug was applied. The instruments necessary to record this
phenomenon are of extraordinary delicacy, and barely survived the strain
of the journey from Calcutta.

ELECTRICITY AND AGRICULTURE

The last experiment was in regard to the effect of electricity on plant
life. He referred particularly to the fact that it was his aim to
discover the law of growth and atrophy among plants. Such a discovery
had a great bearing on the future of agriculture and would revolutionise
world thought. Electricity, he explained and illustrated, would promote
or retard the growth of life by reaction. In England and other countries
electricity had been applied to agriculture but without exact knowledge
of its varying effect on plant life. H