304 NOTES AND COMMENT 



find time to carry through serious investigations in this subject. It 

 is apparent that the demand for pathologists, like that for foresters, 

 is such that students are attracted to positions before their training has 

 progressed so far as to enable them to undertake serious research. 

 Practicioners are necessary, and the need for skilled experts calls strongly 

 to the enthusiastic student, but pathology will not attain its best devel- 

 opment until its devotees find time to carry out researches dealing with 

 the basic phenomena with which they are concerned. It is notable 

 also that plant geography is represented among the doctorates only by 

 physiographic ecology and descriptive work. The broader phases of 

 the subject however may not be attacked with profit by the student 

 under the restricting routine which largely encompasses the candidate, 

 except under the most enlightened guidance and with exceptional priv- 

 ileges as to residence and other incidentals. — D. T. M. 



G. Schmid, a student of Stahl at Jena, has recently published in 

 Flora (104 : 335) a paper describing the results of work on the nutrition 

 of several species of insectivorous plants. The poorly developed root 

 system of Drosera and the simple types of leaf structure found in Drosera, 

 Drosophyllum, Diondea and other forms, are considered as standing 

 in correlation with the insectivorous habit. The low photosynthetic 

 activity found in Drosera and other species is accompanied by a high 

 starch content in the cells of the mesophyll. This excess of starch 

 disappears from the portions of the leaf, in Pinguicula, on which insect 

 remains are being absorbed, due, as Schmid surmises, to the access 

 of inorf t ; c salts. Drosera is poor in potassium and phosphorus. These 

 elements Cannot be detected in the tentacles when they are at rest, 

 but ..^p^'ear in quantity when digestion is going on. Insect remains 

 appear, therefore, to be important not only as sources of nitrogenous 

 food, but also of certain inorganic salts in which the typical substrata 

 of insectivorous plants are known to be deficient. The clogging of 

 leaves with starch might be quite as well attributed to the lack of the 

 nitrogenous materials necessary for metabolism as to the lack of inor- 

 ganic salts. The author has attempted no experimental work in these 

 directions. 



