SECT. VI. ELABORATION OF OXYGENE, 171 



and consequently diminish for the most part the 

 volume of their atmosphere. Some flowers of Li- 

 lilt m album, which were introduced into a receiver 

 filled with common air, and placed over mercury in 

 the shade, consumed in the space of 24 hours a 

 quantity of oxygene equal to 1*1 of their own. 

 volume, of which they inhaled 0*15, replacing it by 

 O-15 of nitrogene. In a similar experiment on a 

 Rose it was found to have consumed 1*8 of its own 

 volume, inhaling 0*43 parts of oxygene, and giving 

 out at the same time 0*43 parts of nitrogene. There 

 seems then to be some ground for the commonly 

 received opinion of the unwholesomeness of sleeping 

 in an apartment which may happen to contain a 

 great many flowers ; for the nitrogene which they 

 give out will no doubt have some effect upon 

 the atmosphere of the apartment, if there is not a 

 free circulation of air in it, though the consequences 

 said to result from this circumstance have certainly 

 been much exaggerated. 



The action and influence of oxygene are in like On the 

 manner essential to the maturity of the fruit. 

 Saussure introduced a bunch of grapes, not yet ripe 3 

 into a globe of glass, which he luted by its orifice to 

 the bough and exposed to the rays of the sun ; the 

 bunch ripened without having effected any material 

 alteration in its atmosphere, except that it contained 

 rather more oxygene than at first. But when a bunch 

 was placed in the same circumstances, with the ad- 

 dition of a quantity of lime, the atmosphere was 



