524 EXPEEIMENT STATIOIST EECOED. 



or black wattle, with reference to the location of tannin. This is said to be 

 present in every organ of the plant, but mostly in the phloem region of trees 

 from six to ten years old, young branches and leaves having too low a tannin 

 content to be profitably used. 



Biochemical investigations of saponins, Marie Korsakoff {Rev. G^n. Bot., 

 26 (1914), No. S06, pp. 225-2U)- — The author studied the occurrence, distribu- 

 tion, and role of saponin in Saponaria officinalis and Agrostemma githago. 



No saponin was found in the leaves or pericarp, and none in the very young 

 seed in sufficient quantity to be detected. It appears, however, in the seed as it 

 reaches maturity. This has led to the conclusion that saponin is either formed 

 in minute quantities in the leaves, from whence it passes to the stems from the 

 sugars, or it is formed in the stems themselves. The author considers that 

 within the seed saponin is formed at the same time as the other reserve ma- 

 terials. The fact that in the process of germination the saponin does not dimin- 

 ish leads him to believe that it is not utilized as a food reserve. 



On a chemical peculiarity of the dimorphic anthers of Lag-erstrcemia 

 indica, with a suggestion as to its ecological signifi.cance, J. A. Harris {Ann. 

 Bot. [Lon(lon'\, 28 {1914), No. Ill, pp. 499-501, figs. 2).— The author states that 

 in L. indica the stamens are dimorphic, those of the outer whorl being larger 

 than those of the more central yellow group, and differing from them also in 

 both color and contained pollen. It is claimed that the differentiation observ- 

 able is physiological as well as morphological, the underlying cause of the 

 phenomena appearing to be chemical rather than physical. The morphological 

 and physiological dimorphism is considered to be a case of specialization of 

 parts to facilitate pollination. 



Studies on the floral biology and pathology of the olive, L. Petri {Shidi 

 sulle Malattie delV Olivo, V. Rome: R. Staz. Patol. Veg., 1914, PP- 5-64, figs. 

 5). — ^The author concludes from studies detailed that a constant and consider- 

 able arrest of an ovarial development more or less precocious may be noted in 

 both cultivated and wild olive plants under good or deficient conditions of 

 growth, and that among the external factors which may condition almost com- 

 plete sterility is prolonged drought. Defoliation produces the same effect, as 

 may any cause of deficient water transfer within the plant, and to this may be 

 added abortion of the anthers. 



It is stated that in a given plant, and even within the same floral shoots of 

 the more fertile individuals, some flowers may show an arrest of ovarial devel- 

 opment at various stages, the percentage of ovarial abortions showing periodic 

 oscillations bearing some relation to vegetative conditions. The arrest of de- 

 velopment in the ovaries is held to have one cause in a deficiency of nitrogenous 

 material, this deficiency seeming to be related to insufficient absorption of 

 nitrates, as well as to diminution, more or less lasting, of the activity of the 

 processes of synthesis of nitrogenous substance. Vegetative multiplication is the 

 means, but not the cause, of perpetuation of this pathological deviation, and it is 

 considered advisable to reject for grafting purposes all plants showing high 

 percentages of ovarial abortion. 



In the present state of knowledge the constancy of ovarial abortion in olives 

 may be regarded, it is thought, as the consequence of a modification, difficultly 

 reversible, of some physiological property of floral shoots, under the influence, 

 more or less prolonged, of exceptional nutritional conditions, by direct or indi- 

 rect action of the external medium in relation to profound modifications of the 

 property of absorption and transfer by the roots. 



Mutation en masse, H. H. Bartlett (Amer. Nat., 49 {1915), No. 519, pp. 129- 

 139, figs. 9). — It is stated that during the author's experiments with CEnothera 

 two species have been discovered, some strains of which give rise by mutation 



