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Evolution of Oxygen by “Vallisneria Spiralis”

Abstract

HAVE any of your readers noticed the rapid evolution of oxygen by a blade of Vallisneria spiralis? If a blade is cut or broken and held under water, the bubbles of gas are rapidly noticed issuing from the broken end, and by a simple arrangement of placing the broken blade or several blades into a test tube filled with water the water is displaced and the gas collected. After forty-eight hours the pores of the broken end of the blade close up and a fresh fracture is necessary to restore the evolution of gas, which also ceases at night only to recommence when the sunlight reappears. I have collected about a cubic inch of gas in eight hours from one blade of the plant. A confirmation of my experiment would please me.

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STANTON, W. Evolution of Oxygen by “Vallisneria Spiralis”. Nature 14, 231 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014231b0

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