Digitale Ausgabe
Download
| TEI-XML (Ansicht) | |
| Text (Ansicht) | |
| Text normalisiert (Ansicht) |
Ansicht
| Textgröße | |
| Originalzeilenfall ein/aus | |
| Zeichen original/normiert | |
Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „On the Effects of Oxygen in accelerating Germination“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1798-De_la_germination-2-neu> [abgerufen am 13.02.2026].
URL und Versionierung
|
Permalink: https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1798-De_la_germination-2-neu |
| Die Versionsgeschichte zu diesem Text finden Sie auf github. |
| Titel | On the Effects of Oxygen in accelerating Germination | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jahr | 1798 | ||||
| Ort | London | ||||
|
Nachweis in: The Philosophical Magazine 1:3 (1798), S. 309–311.
|
|||||
| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua (mit lang-s); Auszeichnung: Kursivierung, Kapitälchen; Fußnoten mit Asterisken und Kreuzen; Schmuck: Initialen. | ||||
|
Identifikation |
|||||
Statistiken
|
|||||
| Weitere Fassungen | |
|---|---|
|
De la germination (Paris, 1798, Französisch) |
|
On the Effects of Oxygen in accelerating Germination (London, 1798, Englisch) |
|
On the effects of oxygen in accelerating germination (Boston, Massachusetts, 1802, Englisch) |
|
|
Germination (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1803, Englisch) |
|
|
Germination (New York City, New York, 1808, Englisch) |
|
|
Germination, chemical experiments respecting (London, 1807, Englisch) |
|
|
Germination, chemical experiments respecting (Edinburgh, 1816, Englisch) |
|309|
Mr. Humboldt
diſcovered, in 1793, that ſimple metal-lic ſubſtances are unfavourable to the germination of plants,and that metallic oxydes favour it in proportion to theirdegree of oxydation. This diſcovery induced him to ſearchfor a ſubſtance with which oxygen might be ſo weakly com-bined as to be eaſily ſeparated, and he made choice of oxy-genated muriatic acid gas mixed with water. Creſſes (lepi-dium ſativum) in the oxygenated muriatic acid ſhowed germsat the end of ſix hours, and in common water at the end
|310| of 32 hours. The action of the firſt fluid on the vegetablefibres is announced by an enormous quantity of air bubbleswhich cover the ſeeds, a phenomenon not exhibited bywater till at the end of from 30 to 45 minutes. Theſeexperiments announced in Humboldt’s Flora Subterranea
Fribergenſis, and in his Aphoriſms on the chemical phyſiologyof Plants, have been repeated by others*. They were madeat a temperature of from 12 to 15 Reaumur. In the ſum-mer of 1796, Humboldt began a new ſeries of experiments,and found that by joining the ſtimulus of caloric to that ofoxygen he was enabled ſtill more to accelerate the progreſsof vegetation. He took the ſeeds of garden creſſes (lepidiumſativum), peas (piſum ſativum), French beans (phaſeolus vul-garis), garden lettuce (lactuca ſativa), mignonette (reſedaodorata); equal quantities of which were thrown into purewater and the oxygenated muriatic acid at a temperature of88° F. Creſſes exhibited germs in three hours in the oxygen-ated muriatic acid, while none were ſeen in water till theend of 26 hours. In the muriatic, nitric † or ſulphuricacid, pure or mixed with water, there was no germ at all:the oxygen ſeemed there to be too intimately united withbaſes of azot or ſulphur, to be diſengaged by the affinitiespreſented by the fibres of the vegetable. The author an-nounces that his diſcoveries may one day be of great benefitin the cultivation of plants. His experiments have beenrepeated with great induſtry and zeal by ſeveral diſtinguiſhed
* See Uslar’s Fragments of Phythology, Plenck’s Physiology, Villde-now’s Dendrology, and Dictionnaire de Physique par Gehler.† The nitric acid, however, diluted with a great deal of water, accele-rates germination also, according to the experiments of Candolle, a youngnaturalist, who has applied with great success to vegetable physiology.This phenomenon is the more interesting, as chemistry affords otheranalogies of the oxygenated muriatic acid and the nitric acid. Professor Pfaff , at Kiel, by pursuing Humboldt’s experiments, has found thatfrogs suffocated in oxygenated muriatic acid gas increase in irritability,while those which perish in carbonic acid gas are less sensible of Galvanism.|311| philoſophers. Profeſſor Pohl at Dreſden cauſed to germinatein oxygenated muriatic acid the ſeed of a new kind of eu-phorbia taken from Bocconi’s collection of dried plants,110 or 120 years old. Jacquin and Van der Schott at Vienna threw into oxygenated muriatic acid all the oldſeeds which had been kept 20 or 30 years at the botanicalgarden, every attempt to produce vegetation in which hadbeen fruitleſs, and the greater part of them were ſtimulatedwith ſucceſs. Even the hardeſt ſeeds yielded to this agent.Among thoſe which germinated were the yellow bonduc ornickar tree (guilandina bonduc), the pigeon cytiſus or pigeonpea (cytiſus cajan), the dodonæa anguſtifolia, the climbingmimoſa (mimoſa ſcandens), and new kinds of the homæa.—There are now ſhown at Vienna very valuable plants whichare entirely owing to the oxygenated muriatic acid, andwhich are at preſent from five to eight inches in height. Humboldt cauſed to germinate the cluſia roſea, the ſeeds ofwhich had been brought from the Bahama iſlands by Booſe,and which before had reſiſted every effort to make themvegetate. For this purpoſe he employed a new proceſs,which ſeems likely to be much eaſier for gardeners whohave not an opportunity of procuring the oxygenated mu-riatic acid: He formed a paſte by mixing the ſeeds with theblack oxyde of manganeſe, and then poured over it the mu-riatic acid diluted with water. Three cubic inches of waterwere mixed with half a cubic inch of the muriatic acid. Theveſſel which contains this mixture muſt be covered, but notcloſely ſhut; elſe it might readily burſt. At the tempera-ture of 95° the muriatic acid becomes ſtrongly oxygenated;the oxygenated muriatic gas which is diſengaged paſſesthrough the ſeeds; and it is during this paſſage that irrita-tion of the vegetable fibres takes place.
On the Effects of Oxygen in accelerating Germination.From the Journal de Phyſique, 1798.
* See Uslar’s Fragments of Phythology, Plenck’s Physiology, Villde-now’s Dendrology, and Dictionnaire de Physique par Gehler.† The nitric acid, however, diluted with a great deal of water, accele-rates germination also, according to the experiments of Candolle, a youngnaturalist, who has applied with great success to vegetable physiology.This phenomenon is the more interesting, as chemistry affords otheranalogies of the oxygenated muriatic acid and the nitric acid. Professor Pfaff , at Kiel, by pursuing Humboldt’s experiments, has found thatfrogs suffocated in oxygenated muriatic acid gas increase in irritability,while those which perish in carbonic acid gas are less sensible of Galvanism.|311| philoſophers. Profeſſor Pohl at Dreſden cauſed to germinatein oxygenated muriatic acid the ſeed of a new kind of eu-phorbia taken from Bocconi’s collection of dried plants,110 or 120 years old. Jacquin and Van der Schott at Vienna threw into oxygenated muriatic acid all the oldſeeds which had been kept 20 or 30 years at the botanicalgarden, every attempt to produce vegetation in which hadbeen fruitleſs, and the greater part of them were ſtimulatedwith ſucceſs. Even the hardeſt ſeeds yielded to this agent.Among thoſe which germinated were the yellow bonduc ornickar tree (guilandina bonduc), the pigeon cytiſus or pigeonpea (cytiſus cajan), the dodonæa anguſtifolia, the climbingmimoſa (mimoſa ſcandens), and new kinds of the homæa.—There are now ſhown at Vienna very valuable plants whichare entirely owing to the oxygenated muriatic acid, andwhich are at preſent from five to eight inches in height. Humboldt cauſed to germinate the cluſia roſea, the ſeeds ofwhich had been brought from the Bahama iſlands by Booſe,and which before had reſiſted every effort to make themvegetate. For this purpoſe he employed a new proceſs,which ſeems likely to be much eaſier for gardeners whohave not an opportunity of procuring the oxygenated mu-riatic acid: He formed a paſte by mixing the ſeeds with theblack oxyde of manganeſe, and then poured over it the mu-riatic acid diluted with water. Three cubic inches of waterwere mixed with half a cubic inch of the muriatic acid. Theveſſel which contains this mixture muſt be covered, but notcloſely ſhut; elſe it might readily burſt. At the tempera-ture of 95° the muriatic acid becomes ſtrongly oxygenated;the oxygenated muriatic gas which is diſengaged paſſesthrough the ſeeds; and it is during this paſſage that irrita-tion of the vegetable fibres takes place.