470 Stowe, Stodola, Hayashi, and Brian 



wasn't the same as the Japanese gibberellin A. We, I'm afraid, told 

 him he was talking nonsense, that this was virtually impossible, that 

 it should be something different; but in point of fact, he turned out 

 to be right. We had, as a result of using the strain we did and the 

 culture media we did, arrived straightaway at a pure gibberellin, a 

 material now known as gibberellic acid or gibberellin A3. A further 

 piece of luck that we had was that almost immediately in our bio- 

 logical work we stumbled on this dwarf-tall relationship which had 

 the effect of first making us think of the possibility of isolating na- 

 tural gibberellins and also provided us in the very early days with a 

 very convenient assay, the dwarf pea (3). Looking back on things, I feel 

 that our early history was characterized by quite extraordinary and 

 undeserved pieces of luck rather than the kind of difficulty that Dr. 

 Stodola mentioned. 



LITERATURE CITED 



1. Borrow, A., Brian, P. W., Chester, V. E., Curtis, P. J., Hemming, H. G., Hene- 

 han, C, JefTreys, E. G., Lloyd, P. B., Nixon, I. S., Norris, G. L. F., and Radley, 

 M. Gibberellic acid, a metabolic product of the fungus Gibberella fiijikuroi: 

 some observations on its production and isolation. Jour. Sci. Food Agr. 6: 

 340-348. 1955. 



2. Brian, P. W., Elson, G. \\., Hemming, H. G., and Radley, M. The plant- 

 grou'th-promoting properties of gibberellic acid, a metabolic product of the 

 fungus Gibberella fujikuroi. Jour. Sci. Food Agr. 5: 602-612. 1954. 



3. , and Hemming, H. G. The effect of gibberellic acid on shoot growth 



of pea seedlings. Physiol. Plant. 8: 669-681. 1955. 



4. Hemmi, T., and Seto, F. Experiments relating to stimulative action by the 

 causal fungus of the "Bakanae" disease of rice. Proc. Imp. Acad. Tokyo. 4: 

 181-184. 1928. 



5. Kurosawa, E. Experimental studies on the secretion of Fusarium heterospomm 

 on rice-plants. Jour. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa. 16: 213-227. 1926. (English 

 translation included in reference 10, p. 111.) 



6. Mitchell, }. E., and Angel, C. R. Plant-growth-regulating substances ob- 

 tained from cultures of Fusarium moniliforme. Phytopath. 40: 872,873. 1950. 



7. Sawada, K. Diseases of agricultural products in Japan. Formosan Agr. Rev. 

 (Taiwan Nojiho). 63: 16. 1912. 



8. Seto, F. The reactions of rice seedlings to infection of the causal fungus of 

 tiie "Bakanae" disease and lo filtrates of its cultures. Mem. Coll. .^gr. Kyoto 

 Imp. Univ. 7: 23-38. 1928. 



9. Shimada, S. Further studies on the nature of the growth promoting substance 

 excreted by the "bakanae" finigus. Ann. Phytopath. Soc. Japan. 2: 442-452. 

 1932. 



10. Stodola, F. H. Source book on gibberellin (1828-1957). 560 pp. Agr. Res. Serv. 

 71-11, USDA, Peoria, Illinois. May, 1958. 



11. , Nelson, G. E. N., and Spence, D. J. The separation of gil)bcrcllin A 



and gibberellic acid on buffered i>artition columns. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 

 66: 438-143. 1957. 



