STUDIES ON APPLES. 
I. STORAGE, RESPIRATION, AND GROWTH. 
REVIEW OF WORK ON THE RIPENING AND RESPIRATION OF FRUITS. 
In the following résumé of works on this subject, the review of 
Gerber” has been used as a guide to the French memoirs on the 
subject. 
The earliest source available in the original was the paper of Bérard.? 
This author carried on elaborate researches on the ripening and res- 
piration of fruits, his results apparently contradicting those of De 
Saussure,° whose conclusions were considered not to be sufficiently 
well established by experiments, De Saussure having put forth the 
idea that green fruits act like leaves toward. the atmosphere surround- 
ing them, in light or darkness. 
Bérard studied the effect produced by unripe strawberries and many 
other unripe fruits on the air surrounding them by keeping them for 
twenty-four-hour periods in air in large flasks sealed by mercury. 
He found in all cases an increase of carbon dioxid at the expense of 
oxygen, and in no case the reverse change. Similar experiments were 
tried on fruits still attached to the tree (apricots, peaches, and plums), 
with the result that the fruit did not mature, but became withered 
and browned, showing apparently that oxygen is necessary for the 
ripening of fruits. Experiments are also described in which fruits 
were kept for long periods of time in inert gases—carbon dioxid, 
hydrogen, or nitrogen, and in vacuo. These experiments were not 
considered successful, for it was found that the fruit lost its odor and 
acquired a disagreeable taste. 
In the second contribution” methods for the analysis of fruits are 
presented, and analyses given of many fruits when green and when 
ripe, viz, apricots, currants, cherries, plums, peaches, and pears. 
De Saussure“ confirmed his previous work, published in 1804, by a 
report of new experiments, which differ widely in their results from 
“ Annales des sciences naturelles, 1896 (8), 4: 1. 
6 Ann. chim. phys., 1821 (2), 16: 152, 225. 
¢ Recherches chimiques sur la yégétation, Paris, 1804. 
@Ibid., p. 225. 
¢Ann. chim. phys., 1821 (2), 19: 1438, 225. 
