32 



leaves, while potassa, magnesia, and in most cases phosphoric acid 

 also were relatively increased, as will be seen from the following table: 



inalytical data from diseased and healthy trees from four orchards. 



[Per cents in the ash.] 



The observations which Honda and the writer ^ made with young 

 pine trees cultivated in pure quartz sand moistened with culture solu- 

 tions free from lime have shown that the leaves reached only half their 

 normal size, and that the young trees gradually perished. 



Bokorny- has cultivated algte {Spirogyra, Zygnema, and Mesocarpus) 

 in culture solutions, in one of which there was no lime, in another no 

 magnesia, and in a third neither lime nor magnesia. These culture solu- 

 tions were kept in aluminium vessels to avoid any trace of substances 

 derived from glass. In the complete solution a normal formation in 

 every respect was noticed. In the solution in which lime was absent 

 the first phenomenon to occur was a decrease of chlorophyll, the 

 chlorophyll band of Spirogyra diminishing not only in breadth and 

 thickness, but also in length, and the original spiral finally becoming a 

 straight line parallel to the longer axis. Some starch, however, was 

 still produced, which proves that it is not the lack of organic matter 

 and of potassa which here brings on this shrinkage, and that the 

 result can be attributed only to the absence of lime. In the solutions 

 in which magnesia and lime magnesia alone were absent, the volume of 

 the nucleus decreased considerably, as well as that of the chlorophyll 

 bodies. The writer has repeatedly observed that Spirogyra majuscida 

 collected from swamj^s containing only traces of lime had very slender 

 chlorophyll bands and scarcely any starch, but that they contained 

 much storedup albumin. When placed in culture solutions contain- 

 ing a moderate amount of lime salts the bands soon became broader. 



Rudolph Weber ^ instituted a series of experiments with cultures of 

 peas under glass of different colors, and compared these plants with 



1 Coll. of Agr., Bull., Vol. II, Xo. 6, Tokyo, Japan. 



'^Bot. Centralbl., 1895, Xo. 14. The complete solution contained — 



Per cent. 



Potassium nitrate 0. 04 



Potassium sulphate 03 



Mouopotassium phosphate 03 



Calcium nitrate - 03 



Magnesium sulphate 03 



3 Landw. Vers. Stat., 1875, Vol. XVIII, p. 19. 



