The Respiration of Wounded Plants. 
BY 
HERBERT MAULE RICHARDS. 
— M— 
With Woodcuts 2 and 3. 
M — • 
W HILE it has been known for some time that, when 
wounded, plants respire with greater activity than 
under normal conditions, a more precise knowledge of the 
phenomena connected with this increased respiration and the 
causes thereof has been lacking. Bohm 1 called attention to 
a considerable rise in the amount of C0 2 produced by potatoes 
which had been injured by cutting in various ways ; but the 
question was not further investigated until Stich 2 , in con- 
nexion with other researches, published a more extended 
account of this phenomenon in the same and other plants. 
He established the fact of the increased respiration more 
clearly than Bohm had done ; but, as the period of his experi- 
ments was short, he did not determine the ultimate effect of 
the injury on the C0 2 - production as compared with normal 
conditions. One of the most interesting facts recorded is that 
when the cut surfaces of the potatoes were so fixed together 
with neutral gelatin as to exclude the access of air the amount 
of respiration in excess of the normal was markedly less. 
More remains to be said concerning this point, and it will be 
taken up later, after a discussion of experiments made by the 
1 Botanische Zeitung, Vol. xlv, p. 671, 1887. 
3 Die Athmung der Pflanzen bei verminderter Sauerstoffspannung und bei 
Verletzungen, Flora, Vol. xlix, p. 1, 1891. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. X. No. XL. December, 1896.] 
