FUNCTION IN PLANT LIFE 17 



internal resistance being unusually low, a current in excess 

 of the average is carried by them, and may possibly ex- 

 plain, in some measure, the ivy's tenacious hold upon life. 

 The insulation is probably due to the numerous resin- 

 passages found in the plant. 



Do VEGETABLES AND FRUITS POSSESS CAPACITY ? 



The answer to this question, so far as the experiments 

 have gone, is in the affirmative. No attempt has been 

 made to determine, by comparison with a standard con- 

 denser, the electrostatic capacity of any vegetable or fruit, 

 as the conditions would vary enormously with size, degree 

 of moisture present, and insulation resistance, without 

 offering adequate compensation for the labour involved. 



It was therefore thought sufficient to ascertain if fruits 

 and vegetables when put in circuit with a battery and a 

 recording instrument, merely, by reason of their conducting 

 juices, formed part of a simple circuit, or whether after the 

 battery had been disconnected they retained charge : 

 whether by reversing the polarity of the battery the 

 polarity of the object under examination could be altered, 

 and for how long any such charge or change, if any, was 

 observable. 



The first experiment was with a quince. With the 

 right-hand needle inserted in the stalk and the left needle 

 in the flower end it gave a constant negative deflection. 

 The needles were allowed to remain in the fruit, but the 

 wires to which they were attached were connected to a dry 

 cell for five minutes, i.e., right needle to carbon and left 

 needle to zinc. The resultant deflection was strongly 

 positive, discharge took place slowly, and it was a consider- 

 able time unfortunately not recorded before the original 

 negative deflection was restored. 



At a later date I tested a number of fruits and 



c 



