BEHAVIOR OF PLANTS IN UNVENTILATED CHAMBERS 293 
After the preparations had been in the dark for i8 hours, the Hght 
was turned on. Observation after one hour showed the seedhngs in 
each box in the pot nearest the Hght responding with positive curves. 
The responses seemed about equal in the two boxes. There were a 
total of 62 seedlings in the ventilated box, and 71 in the unventilated 
box. Two hours after the light was turned on, the pots in the ven- 
tilated box, arranged in the order of their nearness to the light, showed 
respectively 95 percent, 73 percent, and 21 percent of the seedlings 
with positive angles of 20° to 60°. Those in the unventilated box, in 
the same order, showed 100 percent, 48 percent and 45 percent with 
positive angles of 20° to 60°. The average angle seemed about the 
same in both boxes. 
Six hours after the illumination began, in the ventilated box 12 
of the 62 seedlings were still erect. In the unventilated box, 7 of the 
71 seedlings were still erect. This difference is not significant. The 
experiment ends with no evidence tending to show that confinement in 
a small unventilated chamber retards heliotropic response. 
The foregoing test was repeated with 3 pots of seedlings of Brassica 
alba, and 3 pots of seedlings of Fagopyrum esculentum in the ventilated 
box, and the same number of pots of each species in the unventilated 
box. At the same time 3 pots of each species were put into an adjoin- 
ing cabinet of equal size (12 cubic meters), where the temperature 
remained the same as in the first cabinet, and where the air was 
quiet. The 6 pots last mentioned were not put into a culture box. 
Early observation for incipient heliotropic curvature was not made; 
but, after the illumination had continued for 12 hours, all plants had 
responded, and no differences in the behavior of the 3 groups of seed- 
lings could be detected. 
Summary and Conclusions 
The work narrated in the present paper was undertaken to deter- 
mine whether plants behave as well in quiet air in confined chambers 
as in moving air or in ventilated chambers. The question is of prac- 
tical importance in experimental work chiefly in the growth of plants 
in dark boxes and darkrooms. The growth of plants in stagnant air 
in the light involves several other conditions, and no experiments 
in the light were undertaken. 
The material employed was mostly seedlings, of which about 
2,000 have been used, belonging to 12 species. Larger plants belonging 
to 3 species were also used. 
