C U LT U R KS O F A LG A !• 1 8 3 



materia nicdica and therapeutics it is stated that in lar^e 

 doses it produces a condition of mental exhilaration and dis- 

 ordered consciousness of time, locality and personality. This 

 stage of excitement finally gives way to sleep, which may 

 last several hours. Sensation is perverted and benumbed, and 

 ')efore sleep is produced there is more or less general anaes- 

 thesia. L pon the circulatory and respiratory systems the 

 <lrug has but little influence. Although alarming symptoms 

 follow overdoses no death from its use has been recorded. 



A NEW METHOD FOR CULTURES OF 



ALGAE AND MOSSES. 



In the course of a series of experiments on the relation 

 of evaporation and soil moisture to plant growth it has be- 

 come apparent that the porous clay cup described in Publi- 

 cation No. 50 of the Carnegie Institution and referred to in 

 The Plant World for Dec, 1907, and for Jan., Feb. and 

 May, 1908, is exceedingly valuable in the growing of such 

 alg?e or mosses as need a solid and continually moist sub- 

 stratum. The difficulties of studying the behavior of algal 

 forms which thrive on the bark of trees, moist stones and the 

 like, are not at all inconsiderable. Such difficulties arise in 

 good part from the trouble experienced in maintaining the 

 proper moisture conditions. It is well known that porous 

 clay offers a suitable substratum for the growth of such forms 

 and the porous cup evaporimeter furnishes a simple device 

 for keeping such a clav surface at a constant moisture content. 



The porous cup, after being sterilized by boiling in 

 water, is carefully filled with water or dilute nutrient solution, 

 stoppered with a perforated rubber stopper, and connected 

 by a tube through the latter with a bottle of the solution 

 placed at a lower level. I he algae are then planted on the 

 surface of the cup and the latter placed under a bell jar or 

 other suitable co\er which will reduce the evaporation. No 



