Researches on plant respiration. I .— The course of respiration of lathyrus odoratus during germination of the seed and the early development of the seedling

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Abstract
The output of CO2 from germinating seeds and young seedlings was measured by means of the katharometer, which enabled the authors to follow the course of respiration of individual seeds. Seeds retaining their testas exhibit the following series of phases corresponding to the various phases of germination: (1) a fairly rapid increase in respiration rate as the seeds absorb water; (2) a period of constant respiration rate of variable duration, which continues until the seed coat is ruptured; (3) a rapid rise in respiration rate following the rupture of the testas; (4) a period of approximately constant (maximum) respiration rate; and (5) a phase of slowly diminishing respiration rate. Removal of the testas largely eliminated phase 2; respiration rate rose continually to the max. of phase 4. Expts. designed to account for the decline in respiration rate during phase 5 seem to indicate that in older seedlings this decline is due, at least in part, to the conditions of experimentation which tend to a reduction in transpiration rate and so to a reduction in the rate of conveyance of respirable material from the cotyledons to the growing parts, and so to a limitation of the amount of respirable material available at the places where respiration is normally most active.

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