STORAGE, RESPIRATION, AND GROWTH. 13 
sample were analyzed, the remainder being kept for some time in a dry 
place at an even temperature, when another analysis was made. No 
figures were given, and changes in the sugar only are reported, but 
these changes were remarkable, because, while the invert sugar 
remained nearly constant, the sucrose increased, calculated either on 
the basis of juice or on that of soluble solids. This was considered as 
a very curious change to take place in an acid fruit. It is the more 
notable when it is remembered that the green fruit contains no starch. 
Cahours“” noted that ripe oranges evolved carbon dioxid, consuming 
oxygen at the same time, and that when all the oxygen was used up 
the carbon dioxid evolution still continued. It also continued in an 
atmosphere of nitrogen. 
Chatin’ considered that the carbon dioxid evolved by ripening 
fruits resulted from the oxidation of the tannin, since, as the fruit 
ripened, tannin disappeared. 
Frémy° called attention to the three periods in the life Wirore of a 
fruit—growth, ripening, and decay. | 
Corewinder” gave an analysis of ripe bananas, and later’ studied 
bananas from ripeness to decay during a period of eighteen days, dur- 
ing which sugars were determined at 10 different times. The sucrose 
fell from 15.90 to 2.84 per cent; total sugar from 21.80 to 14.68 per 
cent; and invert sugar increased from 3.90 to 11.84 per cent. 
Beyer’ studied the growth of gooseberries, analyzing them every 
few days from the time when the fruit was very small until it was 
ripe. The complete analysis of the fruit at each picking is reported, 
including sugar, acid, protein, ash, fat, and nitrogen-free residue. No 
determinations of sucrose were made. 
A notice of work done by Pasteur in 1866 is found in a review of 
literature on the ripening of grapes by Fitz (p. 14). Pasteur cast 
doubt upon the idea that the acid in ripening grapes gave rise to sugar, 
by discovering that in sour varieties the acid actually increased during 
ripening. 
Petit? published discussions on the ripening of grapes. He con- 
sidered that during ripening the sugar came from the cellulose in the 
fruit, the cellulose first changing to acid by oxidation, and the acid 
then becoming sugar with the evolution of carbon dioxid. Both 
sucrose and reducing sugar were found .in the leaves of the grape, 
cherry, and peach, but in the grape itself only reducing sugar was 
present. 
“Compt. rend., 1864, 58: 495 and 653. 
bTbid., 1864, 58: 576. 
¢Ibid., p. 656. 
@Tbid., 1863, 57: 781. 
é Ann. agron., 1876, 2: 429. 
fLandw. Versuchs-Stat., 1865, 7: 355. 
gCompt. rend., 1869, 69: 760; and ibid., 1873, 77: 944. 
