in plants, the azote they contain may be suspected 
to be derived from the atmosphere : but no expe- 
riments have been made which prove this; they 
might easily be instituted upon mushrooms and 
funguses. 
In cases in which buds are formed, or shoots 
thrown forth from roots, oxygene appears to be 
uniformly absorbed, as in the germination of seeds. 
I exposed a small potatoe, moistened with common 
water, to 24 cubical inches of atmospherical air, at 
a temperature of 59°* It began to throw forth a 
shoot on the third day ; when it was half an inch 
long I examined the air ; nearly a cubical inch of 
oxygene was absorbed, and about three fourths of 
a cubical inch of carbonic acid formed. The juices 
in a shoot separated from the potatoe, had a 
sweet taste ; and the absorption of oxygene, and 
the production of carbonic acid, were probably 
connected with the conversion of a portion of 
starch into sugar. When potatoes that have been 
frozen are thawed, they become sweet; probably 
oxygene is absorbed in this process ; if so, the 
change may be prevented by thawing them out of 
the contact of air ; under water, for instance, that 
has been recently boiled. 
In the tillering of corn, that is, the production 
of new stalks round the original plume, there is 
every reason to believe that oxygene must be ab- 
sorbed ; for the stalk at which the tillering takes 
place always contains sugar, and the shoots arise 
from a part deprived of light. The drill hus- 
bandry favours this process ; for loose earth is 
thrown by hoeing round the stalks : they are pre- 
