GERMINATION OF SEEDS. £Jf), 



In 48 hours* ••• 0*56 cub, in. 90*17 absorbed out of 100. 



several days 3*00 Q8-00 



14 days ...» 3*00 98*47 



several days 2-00 ....... 99*00 



several days 2-50 99*00 



ivoQ 



Exp. 3. On the 24th of March, temp. 54°, press. 29*34, ^ Ex P- 



r . ........ Germinating 



twenty germinating pease were placed in a similar situation ^ease* 

 under a jar, containing about #| cubic inches. 



In 3 days 2*00 cubic inches 90*00 absorbed out of 100. 

 In 3 days 1*00 g8*90 



3-00. 



By these experiments it appears, that seeds, having once GermlwtilTif 



begun to germinate, give out carbonic acid gas in consider* se€ r 3 give ( ^ v 



, . % i carbonic acid 



able quantity, even at low temperatures, though excluded gas, when oM" 



from oxigen gas, and placed in the most awkward and un- *? a £f* *** 

 favourable situations. And this circumstance should be 

 kept in view, as it will have some influence in determining, 

 if there be a possibility of ascertaining the moment when 

 germination ceases in seeds placed in a confined portion of 

 oxigen gas, or common air, or whether any other carbonic 

 gas be formed, than what is supposed to arise from the solid 

 carbon uniting to the oxigen gas, and which has been as- 

 sumed to be in an equal proportion to the oxigen gas that 

 disappears. 



Now it seems evident, that carbonic acid gas can be rea- 

 dily produced by moistened seeds without the contact of 

 oxigen gas; and in several trials I have observed the gas 

 beginning to appear in a few minutes after passing the seeds 

 up the quicksilver, and when from their being in a healthy 

 vigorous state of germinution there was no possibility of in- 

 cipient putrefaction. In most instances on a small scale, 

 on examination of the gas collected in the first 24 hours, the 

 absorption by limewater has been about 90 per cent : and as 

 this has been an invariable case, even where every precau- * 



tion was taken for ttye exclusion of common air, I suspected, A little nitro. 

 that in wholesome germination a small portion of nitrogen gen bUS ? sCt< * 



gas 



