on tlie Air, h^ore the 'period of Maturity. Md 
believe^ that, in equal times, green fruits consume more oxygen 
in sunshine than in the shade. 
In his Recherches Chimiques sur la Vegetation,” M. De 
Saussure formerly maintained, in opposition to Ingenhousz, 
that green fruits, exposed in air to the sun, under certain cir- 
cumstances, contributed to improve it; and it is the purpose 
of the present memoir to confirm and extend that opinion by 
more accurate experiments and details, and thereby to assimi- 
late the action of green fruits upon the air to that which is 
produced by leaves. It is, however, said, that even Ingenhousz 
found, that if green fruits, as pears, grapes, and cucumbers, 
were immersed in spring-water, and then exposed to the agency 
of the solar rays, they often disengaged oxygen gas, like leaves ; 
and this is a result which the experiments of M. De Saussure 
abundantly confirm. 
Green peas (pisum sativum), both in the pod, and when 
shelled, were exposed to the sun, while immersed in spring- 
water, from 11 o’clock a. m. to 4 o’clock p. m. One hundred 
parts of the air of the water 
Before the experiment, consisted 
of Oxygen, ^ 8.0 
* 16 *^ 
Carbonic Acid, 75*5 
A portion of the green leaVes of peas, placed in the same 
circumstances for the same time, afforded an air, 
100 parts of which consisted of 53.0 Oxygen. 
47.0 Azote'. 
A similar quantity of the hollow stems of the same plant 
similarly treated, yielded an air, which, in 100 parts, 
contained 38.0 Oxygen. 
62.0 Azote. 
These results shew, that the green pods and hollow stems 
of peas, when immersed in water impregnated with carbonic 
acid, and exposed to the sun, act, like leaves, in producing oxy- 
gen gas, but in an inferior degree. 
When similar pods of peas were exposed in vessels of atmos- 
pheric air, inverted over mercury for twelve hours during the 
After the experiment, 100 parts 
consisted of Oxygen, 38.35 
Azote, 61.75 
