54 PLANT RESPIRATION 



investigations of Muntz,^ Brefeld,- and de Luca^ brought to 

 light the wide distribution of "anaerobic respiration" in the 

 plant kingdom. Muntz carried out his studies with higher 

 plants and established the regular formation of CO2 and alcohol. 

 The extensive researches of Brefeld showed that various molds 

 as well as seeds, fleshy fruits, foliage leaves, flowers, and the 

 wood of various seed-plants produce alcohol when oxygen is 

 excluded. De Luca came to the same conclusions with the 

 foliage leaves and fruits of various plants. More recently 

 Matruchot and Molliard^ have repeated these older investi- 

 gations with the aid of modern methods under aseptic conditions 

 and have confirmed them in general. Muntz^ had already left 

 entire potted plants in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen in order 

 to meet the objection that severed parts of plants quickly die 

 in the absence of oxygen and cause a production of alcohol as a 

 pathological phenomenon. In these experiments also a pro- 

 duction of alcohol regularly occurred but the plants remained 

 healthy and Muntz demonstrated a further, unhindered develop- 

 ment of them after the restoration of normal aeration. These 

 refined experiments were much too little considered by later 

 investigators. They prove unequivocally that the formation 

 of alcohol is not a phenomenon which is merely incidental to 

 the death of the plants, as many writers claimed even after the 

 publication of this work of Muntz. 



As for the intensity of anaerobic respiration, it is generally 

 less, often considerably less, than that of oxygen respiration. 

 The first careful studies of the magnitude of I/N, i.e. the ratio 

 of the intensity of the so-called intramolecular (anaerobic*) 

 respiration to that of the normal were made by Wilson." 

 The results of these determinations are summarized in the 

 following table. 



' Muntz. Ann. de chim. et de physique (V) 8: 56. 1876. 



= Brefeld. Landwirtschaftl. Jahrb. 5: 281. 1876. 



3 de Luca. Ann. sci. nat. bot. (VI) 6: 286. 1876. 



* Matruchot et Molliard. Rev. gen. de bot. 15: 193- 1903- 



li Muntz. Ann, de. chim. et de physique. (V). 13: 543. 1878. 



'The term "anaerobic respiration" was first introduced by S. Kostychev in 1902. Cf. 

 Kostytschew, S. Ber. d. bot. Ges. 20: 327. 1902; also Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. 40: 563. 1904. 



'Wilson. Flora. 65:93. 1882; c/. also Pfeffer. Untersuch. aus d. bot. Inst. Tubingen 

 i: 105. 1881-1885. 



