426 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



iK'pjirlniont: and the various experhut'Ut stations at liouic and abroad in the 

 introduclion and iuiproveniout of [dants. 



The author considers food jiroduction to be oue of the most fuudauieutal 

 material problems of the day, and thinks this situation is being met or may 

 be met by a better understanding of the principles of plant breeding and their 

 extension to ordinary farm practice. 



A contribution to a knowledge of the mutating CEnotheras, II. K. (^ates 

 (Traiwi. Linn. Sue. London, 2. scr.. Bat., 8 (1913), No. 1, pp. 67, pU. 6). — In this 

 paper the author has sought to bring together and organize certain results of 

 experimental work which he has carried on with ffinolhera during six years, 

 as bearing ni)on the problem of the origins of the forms in question and the 

 factors involved. 



lie concludes that the explanation of the mutation phenomena in (E. 

 lamarckiana is by no means simple, but that while a full understanding of the 

 nature and cause of this behavior has not yet been reached, the facts known 

 lead to the view tliat the previous crossing of this species in the wild condition 

 or in botanical gardens, or both, has been the chief cause of the germinal dis- 

 turbances which manifest themselves in the appeai'ance of mutants. The cause 

 of nuitation is thought to be internal to the organism itself. Two types of 

 mutation are considered, those occurring in pure lines and those following 

 ancestral mixture of germ plasms. 



It is held that there is between mutations and fluctuations no distinction 

 more fundamental than the facts that the one is Inherited and the other is 

 not, oue being due to a germinal alteration, the other to a somatic variation. 

 A bibliography is appended. 



Inheritance in plant hairs, J. Belling {Jour. Heredity, 5 (1914), No. S, pp. 

 3Ji8-3G0, fujH. 11). — Characters of the downy growth on pods of several varieties 

 of velvet beans as modified for several generations by crossing are figured and 

 described, segregation ratios are given, and a working hypothesis is elaborated. 



Immunity to fungus diseases as a physiological test in genetics and 

 systeniatics, exemplifi^ed in cereals, N. I. Yavilov (Jour. Genetics, 4 (1914), 

 No. 1, pp. 43-65). — This examination of evidence regarding the behavior of 

 hosts toward fungi, as influeucetl by degrees of relationship between the hosts, 

 concludes with the statement that the degree of sensitiveness of reaction of 

 fungi with cereals up to the present time is not exceeded by that of the so- 

 called serum methods applied to plants, while the former is much simpler in 

 its application. A bibliography is appended. 



Fasciation, M. A. Brannon (Bot. (Jaz., 58 (1914), No. 6, pp. 51S-526, figs. 

 7). — The author describes some examples of fasciation obsened by him in 

 North Dakota which are thought to have a bearing on the study of normal 

 morphological structures, and also to be of interest by reason of the jthysiological 

 relation existing between increased sap pressure and the disturbed balance of 

 forces which are believed to be responsible for cottonwoods and willows under- 

 going a change from radial to more or less bilateral symmetry during the first 

 three seasons of their growth. 



The transpiration of emersed water plants: Its measurement and its rela- 

 tionships, C. II. Otis (Bot. Ga.::., 5S (1914), No. 6, pp. 457-494, figs, i?).— From 

 a study of a considerable number of aquatic plants, the author found that 

 emersed water plants transinre large amounts of water. With one exception 

 (the water lily) the evaporation taking place from a water surface occupied 

 by emersed plants is much greater than that taking place from a free water 

 surface of the same area under the same external conditions. The amount of 

 evaporation from a water surface occupied by emersed plants depends on the 



