574 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
We shall now turn attention for a moment to consider the 
conditions obtaining in a fruit, the subject selected being a pump- 
kin. Absolute shade was the condition under which the experiment 
was conducted. A thermometer attached to the surface of the 
fruit gave readings as follow on six consecutive days :— 
Max. Dry. Max. Wet. | Min. Dry. | Min. Wet. | Max. inserted.| Min. inserted. 
85°3 784 70°0 68°3 §6°1 76°3 
84°4 796 69°3 63:1 85°3 76:0 
81°6 79:0 69°0 65:2 83:2 Ue 
83:2 74°6 67°5 64°6 85°1 69°1 
84°1 el 66:1 63°2 86:1 68:0 
80:2 784 68°3 64°0 81:2 66°6 
External, Internal or Inserted. 
Flowers of plants exhibit the presence of considerable heat. 
These, of course, no doubt vary considerably in degrees according 
to size and substances. The flower experimented with by the 
writer was that of the night flowering Cactus (Cereus grandifiora). 
The tests were carried out during the night. A thermometer 
inserted into the unexpanded flower-bud gave a reading of 76'8 
degrees Fah. as against 65-9 degrees Fah. of the surrounding 
atmosphere; this reading was taken at 6 p.m. A thermometer 
inserted at the base of an expanded flower, gave a reading of 77:3 
degrees Fah., and 75-8 degrees Fah. ; these records were taken at 
11 p.m., and 5 a.m., respectively. At the same hours the atmos- 
pheric readings were 66:6 degrees Fah., and 66-0 degrees Fah. 
Another subject which possesses a great amount of interest, is 
that of the generation of heat by germinating seeds, the subject 
selected was a cocoanut. Two nuts were selected and put into a dry 
box, without soil, and placed in a room; into one of the nuts was 
inserted a thermometer, while another was laid on the nuts. For 
ten days the readings were regularly taken, with the result that 
the inserted thermometer consistently registered 6°3 degrees Fah. 
lower than that of the surrounding atmosphere ; on the eleventh 
day the nuts were removed and placed in moist soil, and good 
germinating conditions supplied, absolute shade being afforded. 
A thermometer was inserted in the soil alongside the nuts; one 
was also inserted in one of the nuts, and another suspended imme- 
diately over the nuts. For the first eighteen days there was no 
perceptible rise in the temperature of the nuts, the heat fluctu- 
ating between 47-7 and 49-9 degrees Fah., with an atmospheric 
reading of from 68:0 to 75:0 degrees Fah. On the nineteenth 
day there was a visible rise of temperature of the nut, which con- 
tinued to gradually rise for the next twenty-eight days, when the 
