The Chemistry of Plant Life

The Chemistry of Plant Life is by Roscoe W. Thatcher, who is listed as Dean of the Department of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Stations. The text says it is necessary to recognize that only the green parts of green plants can use this inorganic food, and that the colorless plants must have organic food. A suggestion is that forms which supply both materials and potential energy to the organism be designated as synergic foods, while those which contain no potential energy be known as anergic foods.

The text says that in this case the free fatty acid, instead of a soap, is the product obtained in addition to glycerol, and that when glycerol is heated with dehydrating agents it is easily converted into acrolein, an unsaturated aldehyde having a peculiar characteristic pungent odor. The text says a large mass of experimental evidence goes to show that the so-called photochemical action of light is by far the most potent of all the climatic factors which influence the course of development of a plant.