414 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Report of the chemical station and seed-control station at Skara (Sweden) 

 for 1897 (Skara: Sven Hammar, 1898). 



Report of the Swedish chemical stations for 1896 (Meddel. K. Landtbr. Styr., 

 7 (1897), No. •/.', ]>i>. 280-318). — Eight State chemical stations were in operation 

 during 1896, and 6 additional stations were supported by as many county agricul- 

 tural societies. At the State stations 43,551 samples were analyzed in all during the 

 year, of which 36,509 were dairy products, principally milk; 1,201 were fertilizers; 

 568 soil samples; 3,585 were examined for poisons, etc. The county stations analyzed 

 in all 24,524 samples, 90 per cent of which were dairy products. 



A monthly summary is given of milk analyses made at Vesteras I itiemical Station 

 during 18%, including 17,166 analyses. The average for the year was 3.35 per cent 

 of fat.— K. W. WOLL. 



BOTANY. 



On the nitrogen assimilation of plants, L. Ltjtz (Compt. Rend. 

 Acad. Sci. Paris, 126 { 1898), No. 17, pp. 1227-1229).— The author briefly 

 reviews the work of a number of investigators in this line and states 

 that Yille lias sliown that plants are able to assimilate metliylamin 

 and ethylamin, but his conclusions were subject to error on account of 

 the fact that no attempt was made to exclude micro-organisms. Frank 

 is stated to have shown that leucin, tyrosin, and alkaloids are not 

 assimilable. Bokorny has stated tbat Spirogyra is able to grow in a 

 nutrient solution containing trimethylainin sulphate. On the other 

 hand, Eeveil has claimed that alkaloids are poisonous to plants, while 

 Cornevin and Heckel have shown that under certain conditions they 

 may be utilized. 



The author describes in considerable detail his experiments and in 

 conclusion states that phanerogams are able to assimilate their neces- 

 sary nitrogen from amins in the form of salts without those substances 

 being transformed into ammonium salts or nitrates. For this assimila- 

 tion it is necessary that the amins should be presented in a compara- 

 tively simple form. Metliylamin has proved an excellent source of 

 nitrogen, while benzylamin, pyridin, glycolamin, and betain are unas- 

 similable. Phenolamin is said to be very poisonous and the compound 

 ammonium salts and alkaloids are not directly assimilable. In most 

 cases where the nutrient solution contained nitrogen in an unassimilable 

 form the plants lost a considerable amount of their initial nitrogen, 

 in this connection the author states that their period of growth was 

 prolonged considerably beyond what it would have been under ordinary 

 conditions without the intervention of micro organisms, and the ques- 

 tion is raised whether or not there was not some form of self- fermenta- 

 tion present. The author sought to ascertain the form in which the 

 nitrogen disappeared from these plants, and claims that his investiga- 

 tions showed that it was liberated in a gaseous state. 



Influence of diffused light on the development of plants, J. 

 Wiesnee (Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, 126 (1898), No. 18, pp. 1287- 

 128!)), — The author reports a series of experiments with Impatiens bal- 

 samina, Reseda, odorata, Tropceolum niajas, and Ipomma purp urea, which 



