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House Plants

House Plants image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
December
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The questioü so oflen raised by our correspondents as to whethor it is healtby to keep plants in our living rooms and sleeping rooms is answered ty Dr. J. M. Anders in a recent number of the Philadelphia Medical Times. Experimenta made by li i 111 show the value of' plants as natural and perfect "atomizers." The average rate of transpiration tbr plants haviog thin soft leaves - like geraniums and lantanas - is fouod to be an ounce and half of watery vapor per square foot of' leaf surface for twelve diurnal hours of clear weather. At this rate, a great tree like the Washington elm at Cambridge, which has been estimated to have two hundred thousand square feet of surface, would enhale seven and three-quurters tons of water in twelve hours. The rate of transpiration for a house plant is at least tit'ty per cent more rapid than for one ín the open air ; it is evident that a number of such plants must have a material iotiuetice on the humidity of the air in which they are kept. Experiments made by means of the hygroiueter show couclusively that house plants may properly be classed as therapeutio agents. As to their unwholesomeness because of giviog off caibouiu acid gaB at night, it has been shown by experiment that it would require twenty thrit'ty plants to produce an amount of gas equivalent to that inhalcd by one baby sleepcr. A practical application of' the data gained by experiment is giyen in the oarefully prepared formula: (iiveu, a room twenty feet long, twelve feet high, warmed by dry air, a dozen thrifty plants, wit h soft thin lea ves and a leal' ur face of six fuet Muare each, would, if well watercd and so situated as to roceive the direct rayti of the sun ( pref'urably the morning sun) for at least sevcral hours, raise the proportion of' anueous vapor to about the health standara. It is evident, then that every house mothcr can keep the air of winter rooms moist by haviug thrifty plants in thein, and there is every reason to believe that the lives of' inany persons who die lru'i pulmonary complaints might be preserved by this agency at once so agrevablc and so salutary. In inany instances consumplive tendencies have apparently been counteracted by working among plants.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News