HORTICULTURE. 565 



tng 39 lbs. are noted. It is a subterranean fungus and is som.'time used by the 

 natives for food. 



No complete chemical examination was made, l>ut it was found to contain about 

 78.68 per cent of water and 0.77 per rent of ash, which, though small in quan- 

 tity, was rich in phosphates. The conclusions of the chemist who examined the 

 material are to the effect that this native bread contains a small portion of pectous 

 substances and has only a very .small nutritive value. It does not contain nitrogen 

 in any form and is practically unalterable in water or reagents. The bread is believed 

 to consist mainly of a modification of cellulose, most probably fungin. 



Horticultural section, W. J. Palmer (New Zealand Dept. Agr. R[>t. /no'/, />]>■ 

 105-108, fig. 1). — A brief report is here given on the work of the horticultural section 

 of the experiment station of the department. The author notes receiving a consign- 

 ment of apples, pears, plums, peaches, and upwards of 50 varieties of goose- 

 berries from America. They arrived in good condition, and the dry buds were at 

 once inserted into growing stocks in order to obtain quickly plants for distribution. 

 This method of treatment has been found equally as successful as when green buds 

 were used, and it has been the means of saving imported varieties when only a small 

 portion of vitality remains in the top of the plant. 



The fruit industry of Steiermark (Striermarks Obstbau die Obstproduktion, der 

 OhMhandel. Gratz: SteiermarMschen Landes-Ausschusse, 1904, pp. 67, pi. 1, Jigs. 54, 

 map 1). — This book gives an historical account of the development of fruit culture 

 in Steiermark, the present status of the industry, the varieties of apples, pears, cher- 

 ries, plums, apricots, and peaches most generally grown, with outline drawings of 

 the most prominent sorts, and statistics of the industry extending over a number of 

 years. Apples, pears, and plums, including prunes, constitute the chief fruits grown. 



The graft union, F. A. Waugh (Massachusetts Sta. Tech. Bui. 2, pp. 16, figs. 10).— 

 The author has made a study of the nature of the union between stock and scion in 

 haul-wood grafts. It appears that scion and stock do not unite like 2 parts of a 

 broken bone, but remain totally distinct and separate. The new wood which forms 

 after the graft is made is continuous and normally forms in annual unbroken layers 

 like the layers of an ungrafted stem. 



By sectioning a large number of grafts it was found that "in spite of the longitud- 

 inal continuity of the annual layers, there is sometimes, at right angles to them, a 

 visible line of demarcation between the wood grown from the scion and that grow n 

 from the stock. The 2 kinds of tissue are sufficiently unlike that the difference can' 

 be noted with the naked eye. Moreover, in some cases there is a distinct line which" 

 seems to form a boundary between the 2 members." 



The idea that new kinds of plants can be produced by the grafting of divers scions 

 and stocks is held to be erroneous. "No matter how closely the two kinds of 

 cells may lie against one another, their contents are never mingled in the production 

 of a new cell. Each new cell is produced by the division of some older single cell, 

 never by the fusion of 2 parent cells . . . The two kinds of tissue may com- 

 mingle or lap in together somewhat along the line of junction, but this mixture is 

 only mechanical, not physiological." The same kind of union and growth occurs in 

 grafting by budding as in long-scion grafting. f 



The graft is not necessarily the weakest point in the limb. It has been observed 

 that when the wind breaks off branches in an old orchard that a majority perhaps 

 of the fractures do not occur where the grafts have been made, hut elsewhere on the 

 limb. In the case of defective unions caused by some incompatibility of scion and 

 stock the graft is a source of weakness. Defective unions as a rule have not been 

 found to be due to faulty technique in grafting, but rather to incompatibility of stock 

 and scion. 



"In the case of imperfect unions the continuity of the new growth is more or lessf. 

 interrupted by the deposition of a certain amount of loose scar tissue such as serves! 



