FUNCTION.] 



DESTKUCTION OF OXYGEN. 



213 



It was also found that flowers in which the stamens, disc, 

 pistil, and receptacle, only were left, consumed more oxygen 

 than those that had floral envelopes, as is shown by the 

 following table : 



And it is here to be noticed, that those whose sexual appa- 

 ratus destroyed the most oxygen have the greatest quantity 

 of disc, and vice versd ; with the exception of Cobsea scandens, 

 in which the disc is very firm and persistent, and probably, 

 therefore, acts very slowly. 



When the cup-shaped disc of the male flowers of the 

 Gourd was separated from the anthers, the latter only con- 

 sumed 11*7 times their volume of oxygen, in the same space of 

 time which was sufficient for the destruction of sixteen times 

 their volume when the disc remained. The spathe of Arum 

 maculatum consumed, in twenty-four hours, five times its 

 volume of oxygen ; the termination of the spadix thirty times ; 

 the sexual apparatus 152 times, in the same space of time. 



