Fig. 16.
From salt solution placed
in water.
Figs. 14-16.—Osmosis in threads of mucor.
32. Experiment with beet in salt and sugar solutions.—We may now test the effect of a five per cent salt solution on a portion of the tissues of a beet or carrot. Let us cut several slices of equal size and about 5mm in thickness. Immerse a few slices in water, a few in a five per cent salt solution and a few in a strong sugar solution. It should be first noted that all the slices are quite rigid when an attempt is made to bend them between the fingers. In the course of one or two hours or less, if we examine the slices we shall find that those in water remain, as at first, quite rigid, while those in the salt and sugar solutions are more or less flaccid or limp, and readily bend by pressure between the fingers, the specimens in the salt solution, perhaps, being more flaccid than those in the sugar solution. The salt solution, we judge after our experiment with spirogyra, withdraws some of the water from the cell-sap, the cells thus losing their turgidity and the tissues becoming limp or flaccid from the loss of water.
Fig. 17.
Before treatment with
salt solution.
Fig. 18.