Abstract
THE influence of the different rays of the solar spectrum upon the various phenomena of vegetable life has been shown by many observers to be not at all uniform. Speaking broadly, the rays lying to the left of the green, often collectively termed those of the red end, have been found to be most actively concerned with the metabolic processes. They are the ones on which generally the working of the chlorophyll apparatus depends, and in their absence no construction of carbohydrates from the carbonic anhydride of the air takes place. The rays beyond the green to the right, including also the ultra-violet ones, have, on the other hand, been shown to play but a small part in such constructive processes, but to be those on which the phenomena of heliotropism and other interferences with growth depend. They are broadly associated, therefore, with the physical rather than the chemical processes.
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The Action of Light on Diastase. Nature 56, 259 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056259a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056259a0