Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Scientific Memoirs, Selected From the Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science, and From Foreign Journals, 1853: Natural History
Where is the crude nutrient sap elaborated? How does it arrive there P By what path is it carried back to the other parts of the plant to furnish the material for development? In what anatomical and physiological relation do the air-vessels stand to the system in which the saps circulate?
Injections cannot be applied in the endeavour to trace the paths by which ?uids penetrate the vegetable tissues, on account of the minute size of the vessels, nor, indeed, without destruc tion of the substance. But the Spontaneous absorption of easily detected ?uids accomplishes in plants what is done by injection in human anatomy. Coloured ?uids, however, are rarely taken up by uninjured roots; I have therefore made use of a very dilute solution of ferrocyanide of potassium, which may be readily detected in any spot to which it has penetrated, by the blue colour it assumes when chloride of iron is applied. And as the Prussian blue thus formed is insoluble in aqueous ?uids, a little care in slicing and preparing the objects enables us to avoid the spreading of the colour to unaffected parts, which would deceive the observer as to the boundaries within which the natural mo tion of the sap takes place.
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