BOTANY. 745 



chemical properties, and related questions; the manufacture of wood stuff or mechan- 

 ical wood pulp; preparation of cellulose from w 1, i. e., wood cellulose or chemical 



wood pulp; vegetable parchment; the production of sugar, alcohol, and oxalic acid 

 from wood cellulose; viscose and viseoid and their uses; nitro-cellulose, artificial silk, 

 cellulose threads, including cellulose artificial silk and lustra-cellulose, viscose for 

 making textile threads, artificial leather, celluloid, rubber compounds, and rubber 

 substitutes. In every case the processes of manufacture and technical uses of the 

 products are spoken of and the various topics are critically discussed. The volume 

 constitutes a useful handbook for those who are interested in some of the recent 

 developments of applied chemistry, either from a scientific or a technical stand- 

 point. 



Laboratories of the chemical department, F. W. Woli, ( Wisconsin Sta. Rpt. 

 1904, PP- 360-367, figs. 11). — A detailed illustrated description. 



International catalogue of scientific literature. D — Chemistry ( Internal. 

 Cat. Sci. Lit., ,. J ( 1904), pp. VI J I \ 1002). — This is the second annual issue of this cat- 

 alogue, and is in continuation of the parts already noted (E. 8. R., 14, p. 632, and 15, 

 p. 338). 



BOTANY. 



Species and varieties: Their origin by mutation, II. de Vriks, edited by D. 

 T. MacDougal {Chicago: Tin open ('unit Pub. Co.; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1905, pp. XVII£-{-847). — This is a series of 28 lectures delivered 

 by the author before the University of California during the summer of 1904, in 

 which an attempt is made to point out the means and methods by which the origin 

 of species and varieties may become an object of experimental inquiry. The 

 mutation theory with which the author's name is associated is presented in a some- 

 what condensed form, and original observations which have been noted within the 

 last few years are added. While the present course of lectures is not designed to 

 take the place of the previous publication, it is believed that it will prove a useful 

 substitute for the general reader interested in the subject of plant breeding. 



The author claims that his theory is in full accord with the principles laid down 

 by Darwin, and that his work gives a thorough and sharp analysis of some of the 

 ideas of variability, inheritance, selection, and mutation which were necessarily 

 vague at the time of Darwin's investigations. He reviews and criticizes much of the 

 literature relating to plant breeding, and offers many suggestions of lines for future 

 study. The hook will be found to be a valuable addition to the rapidly increasing 

 literature relating to the breeding of plants and animals. 



Two types of intramolecular respiration of higher plants, A. I. Nabokikh 

 (Zhur. Opuitn. Agron. [Russ. Jour. Expt. Landw.'], 5 (1904), No. 3, pp. 305-315) . — 

 The author conducted investigations on the anaerobic metabolism of the seeds of 

 peas, castor beans, sunflowers, rape, squash, and lupines, as well as cultures of 

 Penicillin m (//mien, n. The plants enumerated were grown in large sealed vacuum 

 flasks, supplied with milk, orange juice, succinic acid, and various nutritive sub- 

 stances, such as glucose, peptone, mannite, and asparagin. Only sterile cultures 

 were analyzed, and the carbon dioxid, alcohol, loss of dry substance, and the acid 

 contents were determined 



The anaerobic decomposition of glucose takes place in the majority of seeds inde- 

 pendently of the nature of their reserve substances. The alcoholic fermentation was 

 observed in seed of peas, sunflower, rape, and squash, the artificial nutrition of the 

 seeds with glucose increasing the intensity of the alcoholic and carbon-dioxid forma- 

 tion 25 to 100 per cent. The ratio of carbon dioxid to alcohol formed by the peas 

 was found under favorable conditions to correspond exactly to the equation for 

 alcoholic fermentation. The author is convinced that in all plants investigated by 

 him, along with the alcoholic fermentation other processes take place which yield 



