STUDIES ON FRUIT RESPIRATION. 



I. EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE RESPIRATION OF FRUITS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The literature on the effect of temperature on the respiration of 

 plants is well covered up to the year 1905 by the review of Czapek, 1 

 who notes that de Saussure and his predecessors were well acquainted 

 with the fact that a rise in temperature increases both the rate of 

 absorption of oxygen and the rate of evolution of carbon dioxid. 

 Van't Hoff 2 early noticed that the respiration of plants followed the 

 empirical rule that the rate increases two or three times for each rise 

 of 10° C. 3 Important studies were published in 1905 by Miss Mat- 

 thaei 4 on the effect of temperature on the respiration and assimila- 

 tion of leaves, and Kuyper 5 has recently published results on the 

 effect of temperature on the respiration of seedlings. But little work 

 has been reported in the literature on the respiration of fruits. The 

 investigations of Gerber 6 showed that the rate greatly increased on 

 warming. Bigelow and Gore 7 found that the formation of carbon 

 dioxid by apples was much more rapid at cellar temperatures than 

 in storage at 0° C, and F. W. Morse 8 confirmed these results and 

 showed "that at summer temperatures apples will undergo respir- 

 atory metabolism from four to six times as rapidly as in modern cold 

 storage." 



The work herein reported was undertaken to obtain more infor- 

 mation along this line, which is of special value at this time, when 

 such rapid advances are being made in the field work on the trans- 

 portation and storage of fruit. The plan followed consisted, in brief, 

 in determining the rate of evolution of carbon dioxid from fruit kept 

 in the dark at different temperatures and supplied freely with air. 



1 Biochemie der Pflanzen, 1905, 2 : 397. 



2 Etudes de dynamique chemique, 1883. 



3 This point is further discussed on p. 28. 

 « See p. 28. 



5 Kon. Akad.van Weten Amsterdam, 1909, 12 (1) : 219; and Recueil des Travaux Botan. Neer- 

 landais, 1910, 7 : 131. 



6 Ann. des sciences naturelles, 1896, (8), 4 : 1. 



7 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Chemistry, Bui. 94. 

 e J. Amer. Chem. Soc, 1908, 30 : 876. 



