Abstract
IN a paper published in 1949, Dixon and Barlee1 provided evidence of activated absorption of water by cut shoots, the leaves of which are in a saturated atmosphere or submerged in water, which does not appear to be open to the objections raised by Smith, Dustman and Shull2 to Dixon's earlier experiments3. The fact that an atmosphere of nitrogen brings such absorption to an end, in some cases reversibly, shows that neither a residual water deficit nor transpiration from the leaves attributable to small temperature differences (due to absorption of light by the leaves) can account for the absorption observed when oxygen is available. It is nevertheless difficult to conceive a mechanism whereby transpiration into a saturated atmosphere could be maintained.
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References
Sci. Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc., 22, No. 20 (1940).
Bot. Gaz., 91, 395 (1931).
Notes from the Bot. School, Trin. Coll., Dublin, 1, 106 (1898); 4, 319 (1938).
Discussions of the Faraday Soc., No. 3, 159 (1948).
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THODAY, D. Transpiration into a Saturated Atmosphere. Nature 164, 541–542 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164541c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164541c0
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