proceedings: botanical society 101 



The 107th regular meeting of the Botanical Society of Washing- 

 ton was held in the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club, at 8 p.m., Tues- 

 day, November 2, 1915. Forty-five members and six guests were 

 present. The following papers were presented: 



Relation of catalase and oxidases to respiration in plants (with lan- 

 tern) : Chas. O. Appleman. (To be published in full as Bulletin No. 

 191 of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station.) 



The chemical mechanism of respiration in plants is very complex 

 and imperfectly understood. Enzyme action undoubtedly plays the 

 most important role. Among the enzymes which have been assigned 

 various functions in respiration we find the oxidases and catalase, al- 

 though their relation to this process is almost entirely hypothetical. 

 Respiration in potato tubers is not only greatly accelerated by various 

 artificial treatments, but is subject to fluctuations under natural con- 

 ditions, such as greening and sprouting. The rate of respiration also 

 varies in different parts of the same tuber and tubers of different varie- 

 ties. Since these tubers also contain very active catalase and oxidase, 

 they were chosen as specially favorable material in making a quanti- 

 tative study of the relation of both catalase and oxidase activity to 

 the intensity of respiration. The data seem to justify the following 

 conclusions : 



1. The oxidase content in potato juice gives no indication of the 

 intensity of respiration in the tubers. In other words, there is no 

 correlation between oxidase activity and the rate of respiration in these 

 organs. The author does not disclaim any role of the demonstrable 

 oxidases in respiration, but they certainly are not the controlling fac- 

 tor in regulating the rate of respiration in potato tubers. 



2. Catalase activity in the potato juice shows a very striking corre- 

 lation with respiratory activity in the tubers. 



Some Philippine botanical problems: E. D. Merrill. (To be pub- 

 lished in full elsewhere.) 



Botanical notes of a trip to Japan: W.T. Swingle. (To be published 

 in full elsewhere.) 



The 108th regular meeting of the Society was held in the Assembly 

 Hall of the Cosmos Club, Tuesday, December 7, 1915, at 8 p.m. Thir- 

 ty-two members and three guests were present. Messrs. A. T. Speare, 

 James Johnson, H. R. Rosen, and H. C. Rose were elected to mem- 

 bership. The following papers were presented: 



Dr. W. Ralph Jones: An appreciation: C. L. Shear. 



Dr. Jones was quiet and retiring in disposition and of excellent habits. 

 He had a great aversion to taking animal life and would not take 

 courses in zoology involving the death of higher animals ; neither would 

 he hunt nor fish. His chief recreation and amusement were novel 

 reading and music. He was very fond of reading good French novels 

 in the original, and of the opera. He showed an interest in natural 

 science early in life and as a boy began a collection of minerals and 

 also an herbarium of flowering plants. His interests in botany were 



