PHYTOTOMY. 



cannot be denied, that in all odorous matters hydrogen pre- 

 dominates. Along with this, the finest parts of the peculiar 

 juices are drawn out, and occasion the manifold smell of 

 flowers. That hydrogen is given out by flowers, may also 

 be concluded from the powerful evaporation of blossoms, 

 which, according to some observations on the Arum cordifb- 

 Hum Bory, can even generate drops of water. To the same 

 purpose, also^ are the experiments which have been made re- 

 specting the inflammability of the atmosphere of White Dit- 

 tany, by lighted bodies, as well as respecting the flashes given 

 out by many flowers on sultry summer evenings. 



That azotic gas is produced from flowers, and that they 

 even regularly exhale it along with carbonic acid, at the same 

 time that they inhale oxygen, has been shewn by Saussure, 

 (Recherches Chimiques sur la Vegetation, p. 127.), and by 

 Grischow, (Untersuchungen iiber die Athmungen der Ge- 

 wachse, sect. 154.) ; but we shall return again to this im- 

 portant observation. Saussure, indeed, has denied that hy- 

 drogen is exhaled from flowers, and he attributes the in- 

 flammation of the atmosphere of dittany to the burning of es- 

 sential oils ; but these also consist, for the most part, of hy- 

 drogen. 



330, 



Every thing seems to shew, that the corolla is not only a 

 covering of the sexual parts, but an organ by which the po- 

 larised primitive matters are directed to their evolution, and 

 to their diflerent attractions. The return of the sap to a 

 more oxydized condition, and the evident evacuation of hy- 

 drogen and azbte, appear to have as essential an influence on 

 fructification, as the deposition in the honey-juice of flowers 

 of oxydized mucilage, during the evolution of hydrogen,- — of 

 which we are about to speak. 



331. 



The situation of the nectaries, at the Basis of the sexual 

 organs, shews us, that the oxydized sap must be deposited in 



