1917] AGEICULTTJRAL BOTANY. 27 



that the soil Is relatively rich in the essential elements of fertility but markedly 

 deficient in line. Plat experiments with barley, oats, wheat, peas, and roots 

 showed that liminj; at the rate of two tons per acre was marliedly beneficial to 

 barley and peas, and slightly beneficial to oats, wheat, and roots. 



Fertilizing materials, F. T. Shutt {Canada Expt. Farms Rpts. 1915, pp. 

 115-127). — Analyses of limestones, crushed clam shells, marls, wood ashes, 

 mucks, peats, river and tidal muds, and certain by-products from manufactur- 

 ing processes, are reported. 



AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 



Agriculture and native vegetation in Peru, O. F. Cook {Jour. Wash. Acad. 

 Sci., 6 {1916), No. 10, pp. 28-'f-293, figs. 2).— Opportunity for studying the rela- 

 tions of agriculture to forest vegetation in southern Peru and Bolivia having 

 been afforded, the author has given an account of the biological conditions favor- 

 ing forest growth, the present and former forest flora in the Andes, the habits 

 of surviving native trees, the influence of forest fires, and the agricultural 

 habits of the people. 



The vegetation of a desert mountain range as conditioned by climatic 

 factors, F. Shkeve {Curneyie Inst. Washington Pub. 217 {1915), pp. 112, pis. 37, 

 figs. 18). — Results are given of a study covering several years of the ecology of 

 the Santa Catalina Mountains, near Tucson, Ariz. The author recognizes 

 three prominent divisions, desert, semidesert or shrub, and forest regions. The 

 vegetation of each region is described, and an attempt is made to correlate the 

 plant life with the climatic factors, which were carefully determined. 



Characters of plants grown in salt water and heredity, P. Lesage {Rev. 

 Gen. Dot., 28 {1916), No. 326, pp. 5S-.^4).— The author carried on a series of ex- 

 periments during 1911 to 1915 to determine whether the differences observable 

 between Lepidium sativum grown in surface v/ater and that gi-own in sea water 

 or weaker concentrations of salts are persistent and hereditary. 



It is stated that of the various modifications produced in the specimens 

 grown in salt water, so far as yet studied, only three (admittedly correlatives) 

 appear to show a tendency to persist, namely, decreased size, diminished propor- 

 tion of large seeds, and diminution of the average size of the seeds. 



Note on an orderly dissimilarity in inheritance from different parts of a 

 plant, W. Bateson and Caroline Pellew {Proc. Roy. Soc. [L(mdon~\, Ser. B, 

 89 {1916), No. B 612, pp. 174, i75).— Reporting a continuance of studies pre- 

 viously noted (E. S. R., 34, p. 41), the authors state that they have followed 

 up the suggestion given by the fact that in the intermediate forms previously 

 described the characters may change progressively with growth, the lower 

 parts being more typelike, the upper more roguelike, while only the lowest 

 leaves of the Fi plants show any influence of the type parent. These observa- 

 tions suggest that when the offspring consists of a mixture of types and rogues, 

 the types may be derived from the lower, and the rogues from the upper, parts. 



Having in 1915 saved the upper and the lower pods separately from many pea 

 plants, the bulk of which were reserved for further tests, the authors made a 

 preliminary trial with a few seeds. As a result, it is thought that a segi-egation 

 takes place in the soma of the plant such that the type elements are present 

 especially in the lower parts, as had been surmised from the Fi generation. It 

 is, therefore, considered probable that the rogues which are derived directly 

 from typical plants are derived predominantly from the apical pods. 



A hybrid between Tripsacum and Euchlsena, G. N. Collins and J. H. 

 Kempton {Jotir. Wash. Acad. Set., 4 {1914), No. 5, pp. 114-117).— It is stated 

 that in studying the heredity of maize and related plants, a fertile hybrid be- 



