Photosynthesis, or the Plant and Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Photosynthesis is the process by which the inorganic substances carbon dioxide and water are converted to organic compounds in the plant with the aid of light energy, liberating at the same time the gas oxygen, and therefore is the most important process in the world for by its means the plant synthesises food for man and animals, including those on his farm and in his fishing grounds, and those which he hunts. In nature it proceeds with apparent ease but under laboratory conditions the process is not easy to reproduce. Atmospheric carbon dioxide, of which there is about 0.03 per cent, enters the minute holes, or stomata, of the leaf which were first observed by Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694)¹ a pioneer in the application of the microscope to the study of animal and plant structure, and who suggested that leaves were concerned with plant nutrition.