Whats this black canister peice next to the oil filter with two vaccum lines coming out? One ran to the block and the other ran to the intake manifold. The nipple on the intake manifold, I accidently broke. I was wondering if it was really needed or should I just plug up the intake manifold side?

 

its a charcoal canister needed for smog purposes

 

will anything happen if its plugged up because I accidently broke one of the nipples and theres no way to get the hose back on unless i get a new one. So Im just gonna glue the hole up. and plug up the vac hole on the mani..