1917] AGEICULTUKAL BOTANY. 521 



Official report on commercial fertilizers licensed, inspected, and analyzed 

 during the year 1914 {Agr. Com. Ohio, Off. Rpt. Com. Pert., 19U, pp. 273).— In 

 addition to a large amount of general information regarding the selection, 

 purcliase, and use of commercial fertilizers in Oliio, this report contains the 

 results of actual and guarantied analyses of 726 samples of fertilizers and 

 fertilizing materials offered for sale in Ohio during 1914. 



Commercial fertilizers, W. B. Cady {Porto Rico Bd. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 16 

 {1916), pp. 12). — This bulletin gives a brief general discussion of fertilizers in 

 relation to crop production, and reports the results of actual and guarantied 

 analyses and valuations of 106 samples of fertilizers and fertilizing materials 

 offered for sale in Porto Rico. 



Commercial fertilizers, J. L. Hills, C. H. Jones, and G. F. Andebson {Yer- 

 mont Sta. Bui. 108 {1916), pp. 5-^9).— This bulletin reports the results of actual 

 and guarantied analyses of 168 samples of fertilizers and fertilizing materials, 

 representing licensed brands collected for inspection in Vermont during 1916, 

 together with a discussion of results and other data. It was found that 82 per 

 cent of the brands analyzed met their guaranties. Owing to abnormalities in 

 the trade in crude chemicals no valuations are given. 



AGRICULTUEAL BOTANY. 



Hereditary reaction system relations — an extension of Mendelian concepts, 

 R. E. Clausen and T. H. Goodspeed {Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 2 {1916), No. 4, pp. 

 2JfO-2^Jt). — As preliminary to a more detailed statement to appear later, the 

 authors report briefly some results of observation and experimentation carried 

 on for about ten years at the university of California on the monotypic species 

 Nicotia7ia sylvcstris and a number of the varieties of N. tabacum. 



When any one of these varieties is crossed with N. sylvest7-is, the Fi hybrid 

 nearly, or completely, reproduces on a larger scale the characters of the Ta- 

 bacum variety used in the cross, somatogenesis in these cases appearing to be 

 dominated by the Tabacum system as a unit. It is thought that if these Fi 

 hybrids be considered to represent the reaction end-product of two funda- 

 mentally dissimilar reaction systems, the relations of the two systems, as here 

 manifested, indicate a rather extensive mutual incompatibility of the elements 

 of the two systems. 



This deduction is supported by the fact that these hybrids produce only a 

 few functional ovules, the number being apparently constant within rather 

 narrow limits. These functional ovules are considered to represent the N. ta- 

 bacum and sylvcstris extremes of a recombination series, the vast majority of 

 the members of which fail to function on account of being built up of incom- 

 patible elements from the two systems. 



The deduction is made that the type of behavior displayed by species hybrids 

 may be considered as dependent upon the degree of incompatibility of the 

 reaction systems involved, sterility in such cases being merely a logical conse- 

 quence of such incompatibility and an expression of its extent. The implica- 

 tions of the conceptions of such a reaction system are discussed. 



On the composition of a factorial formula for zygotes in the study of in- 

 heritance of seed characters of Zea mays with notes on seed pigments, K. 

 FuJii and T. Kuwada {Bot. Mag. [Tokyo], 30 {1916), No. 351, pp. S3-8S).— The 

 authors report studies on two conditions which, it is thought, may account for 

 disagreements between theoretical expectations and experimental results met 

 with by various investigators in studying inheritance of seed characters in 

 maize. 



85476°— No. 



