Experiments with Intact Flowers. For the determination of ethylene synthesis in whole Tradescantia flowers, single flowers
were excised from the plants early in the morning of day 0, and placed with their cut stems into nitrocellulose (7 x 15 mm) tubes containing distilled H20. Each tube was inserted into a perforated foam stopper which was placed into a 50-ml plastic syringe. The plunger of the syringe was adjusted to give an air space of 30 ml, and the syringe was sealed with a serum vial cap. The progress of flower fading was viewed through the plastic walls of the sealed syringes. In order to study the effect of an exposure of flowers to ethylene, batches of flowers were gassed simultaneously with 10 ,ul/l ethylene for 90 min in a 50-ml stoppered plastic syringe. Upon completion of this treatment, the flowers were removed and placed
into individual 50-ml syringes as described above. The length of
time from sealing this syringe until the flowers had completely
closed was noted.