458 M. Dumas on the Chemical Statics of Organized Beings. 



the green parts of plants ; an extraordinary absorption doubt- 

 less, but which explains without difficulty the enormous ex- 

 pense of chemical force necessary for the decomposition of a 

 body so stable as carbonic acid. 



What, moreover, is the function of this fixed carbon in the 

 plant? for what is it destined? For the greater part, with- 

 out doubt, it combines with water or with its elements, thus 

 giving birth to matters of the highest importance for the vege- 

 table. 



If twelve molecules of carbonic acid are decomposed and 

 abandon their oxygen, the result will be twelve molecules of 

 carbon, which, with ten molecules of water, may constitute 

 either the cellular tissue of plants, or their ligneous tissue, 

 or the starch and the dextrine which are produced from 

 them. 



Thus in any plant whatever, nearly the entire mass of the 

 structure (charpente), formed as it is of cellular tissue, of lig- 

 neous tissue, of starch, or of gummy matters, will be repre- 

 sented by twelve molecules of carbon united to ten molecules 

 of water. 



The ligneous part, which is insoluble in water, — the starch, 

 which gelatinizes (Vamidon, qui fait empois) in boiling water, 

 — and the dextrine, which dissolves so easily in water cold or 

 hot, constitute therefore, as M. Payen has so well proved, 

 three bodies possessing exactly the same composition, but 

 diversified by a different molecular arrangement. 



Thus, with the same elements, in the same proportions, ve- 

 getable nature produces either the insoluble walls of the cells 

 of cellular tissue, and of the vessels, or starch which she 

 accumulates as nourishment around buds and embryos, or 

 the soluble dextrine which the sap can convey from one 

 place to another for the wants of the plant. 



How admirable is this fecundity, which out of the same 

 body can make three different ones, and which allows of their 

 being changed one into the other, with the slightest expense 

 of force, every time occasion requires it ! 



It is also by means of carbon united with water, that the 

 saccharine matters so frequently deposited in the organs of 

 plants for peculiar purposes, which we shall shortly mention, 

 are produced. Twelve molecules of carbon and eleven mo- 

 lecules of water form the cane sugar. Twelve molecules of 

 carbon and fifteen molecules of water make the sugar of the 

 grape. 



These ligneous, amylaceous, gummy and saccharine matters, 

 which carbon, taken in its nascent state, can produce by uni- 

 ting with water, play so large a part in the life of plants, that, 



