DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, when coal gas was used for street illumination, it was observed that trees in the vicinity of streetlamps defoliated more extensively than other trees. Eventually it became apparent that coal gas and air pollutants affect plant growth and development, and ethylene was identified as the active component of coal gas. In 1901, Dimitry Neljubov, a graduate student at the Botanical Institute of St. Petersburg in Russia, observed that dark-grown pea seedlings growing in the laboratory exhibited symptoms that were later termed the triple response: reduced stem elongation, increased lateral growth (swelling), and abnormal, horizontal growth. When.
