Abstract
Seeds cannot germinate without water and oxygen gas. Oxygen does not unite directly with the substance of the seed. All germinating seeds give off carbon dioxide, and the volume emitted is nearly the same as the volume of oxygen absorbed; thus oxygen’s influence seems to be limited to removing a part of the carbon that the seed acquired when it was formed. Seeds will not germinate in atmospheres of pure nitrogen, hydrogen, or carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide produced during germination inhibits continued germination more than does a similar amount of nitrogen or hydrogen gas. For a given species of plant, the amount of oxygen required for germination varies in proportion to the size of the seeds and is, overall, very small. Putrefying seeds give off carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen gases. During germination, seeds produce sugar, but not as a result of the direct combination of oxygen gas with a substance in the seed. Seeds have a lower dry weight after germination, even when corrected for the carbon lost as carbon dioxide. This additional weight loss is attributable to the formation and release of water from the seeds’ dry substance. Light is not detrimental to germination.
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Notes
- 1.
Valmont de Bomare, Dictionnaire d’Histoire naturelle (article Café), made this phenomenon known, but it has been ascribed, baselessly, to a true germination. Lentils that have lost their germinative ability have the same property in a less striking manner.
- 2.
This observation, which I am merely confirming, was made by Sprengel (Anleitung zur Kenntniss der gewachse, Vol. 1. p. 396). It shows, along with other, similar observations, that these openings do not form through contact with air.
- 3.
Annales de Chimie, Vol. 25, p. 37.
- 4.
Lavoisier found, in his experiment on the combustion of charcoal in oxygen gas, that the oxygen gas underwent a small decrease, equivalent to around 5/100 of its volume. This difference arises from the fact that charcoal cannot be entirely freed of hydrogen; therefore, the purer and drier the charcoal that was used, the less the difference (Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences, 1781).
- 5.
I say in direct contact because the contact of atmospheric air with the water in which dead seeds are submerged singularly augments the development of hydrogen gas. Seeds placed under a little water covered by a layer of oil, or without oil under a receptacle filled with a small amount of water and sealed by mercury, can emit very little gas there, or at most three or four times their volume, and the plant does not deteriorate noticeably. But if the mercury or oil is removed, the emission of hydrogen gas is limited only by the almost complete disappearance of the seed. The mechanical pressure of the oil or mercury could stop this release, but in my experiments it was not great enough to produce this effect, because a column of water equal in weight to that of these external fluids did not stop the emission of the gas. I believe that the carbon dioxide that the water retains in greater quantity when the water is not in contact with the atmosphere serves as an antiseptic to the seed.
- 6.
I am not speaking here of effects that occur in the final stages of putrefaction. I will return to those later.
- 7.
Essais politiques, économiques, et philosophiques, Vol. 2, p. 273.
- 8.
The decomposition of carbon dioxide should produce cold, since composing it yields heat.
- 9.
Expériences sur la Germination des Plantes, by Lefebure, p. 136.
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Hill, J. (2013). Influence of Oxygen Gas on Germination. In: Chemical Research on Plant Growth. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4136-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4136-6_1
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