418 



As long as tlie tissue coiitaius a certain quantity of wat<*r, he says 

 the plaut retains its activity, and it may happen that the reserve starch 

 is conipk'tely resorbed aft^r the dormant state has set in. Even after 

 the falling;- of the leaves woody plants vegetate aud respire for a time. 

 These signs of life seem to be strongest in the bast. 



It is believed that these investigations call attention to two processes 

 in the growth of woody plants, which have long remained unobserved. 

 The first of these is the resorption of starch in autumn, and the second 

 the re-formation of the same in the simng — processes occupying from G 

 to 8 weeks each. It would seem from tliis that the amount of starch 

 stored in reserve in woody i)lants instead of being largest in winter is 

 in fact least. 



To what extent can free atmospheric nitrogen be utilized 

 for the nourishment of plants? B. Frank [Dviit. landic. rrcx.sv, 

 is'.il. j). 77U). — The author rt'i»orts pot experiments, made with yellow 

 lupine and peas, which lead him to believe that bacteria are not essen- 

 tial in all cases to the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen. His 

 results indicate that both lupine and peas, when grown in sterilized soila 

 containing liumus, secured considerable (|uantitiesof nitrogen from some 

 source, since the crop harvested contained several times the amount 

 furnished by the seed, and the soils were found to contain somewhat 

 more nitrogen at the close than at the Ijeginning of the experiment. 

 Thesynd)iosis was, however, of advantage to the plants, especially to the 

 peas, or to the lupines grown in light soil deficient in nitrogen, enabling 

 them to secure more nitrogen. Thus, while the nitrogen in the]M'a crop 

 was 1,'i.l times tliat in the s«'ed wlien the plants were kept sterile, it 

 was 2G.5 times that in tlie seed when they were inoculated; and in the 

 case of lupines grown in poor soil, while the nitrogen in the crop was 

 2.7 times that in the seed wlien tlie plants were kept st«'rile, it was 18.5 

 times that in the se;'d when the symbiosis was alhnvi'd. Lupiiu' plants 

 grown in soil to which hunuis was added contained, when kei)t sterile, 

 9.5 tinu^s and when iiiomlated 11.3 times as much nitrogen as had 

 been supi)lied in the seeds. In all of the above cases the soil in tlie 

 pots was slightly richer in nitrogen at tlie end than at the beginning of 

 the experiment. It will be noticed tliat in. these experiments the yel- 

 low lu])ine ])l;nits arunii'ed considerably moie nitrogen when grown in 

 the po(n- soil tiian when grown in tlie richer humus soil, and that they 

 were more benefited by the symbiosis in the former than in the latter 

 case. In other experiments there was no jierceptible advantage from 

 manuring inoculated yellow lupine i>lants with ammonium suli)hate 

 or calcium nitrate, and in fact these plants contained a snmller quan- 

 tity of nitrogen when manured than when grown in nitrogen free soil. 

 The inoculated pea plants, on the contrary, were benefited by the 

 manuring, es]>eeially with calcium nitrate. The author inters from these 

 results that the yellow lupine is eminently adapted to green manuring 

 on light soils deficient in nitrogen, and that for this purpose the land 



