On Apr 17, 3:11 pm, wrote:
Study Documents the Power of Indoor Plants

By Melinda Wenner
Special to LiveScience
posted: 17 April 2007
10:42 am ET

Green thumb or not, most of us have at least one houseplant because
even the most pathetic mini-shrub offers our citified selves a slender
link back to nature, according to new research.

Previous studies have suggested that plants lower the levels of indoor
contaminants and keep people feeling healthier. After noticing how
much joy his wife got from plants, Clas Bergvall, an ethnologist at
Umeå University in Sweden, wanted to know what they did for people
emotionally-so he dedicated his doctoral dissertation to the subject.

In the eight years since he began his research, Bergvall has found
that people across centuries share an almost metaphysical connection
to plants, and that when brought into the home, plants have an
enormous positive impact on well-being.

For one thing, plants seem to make people more contemplative and self-
reflective,...

Contemplative? Surely he's joking. There's nothing contemplative
about thinking murderous thoughts about sulen vegatation. "Grow, damn
you!" Is about as contemplative as I get.

J. Del Col