1919] AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 25 



3918 inspection are presonted, together with a discussion of the entire 1918 

 inspection. A total of 1,385 samples was received for analysis. Deficiencies 

 in one or two plant food elements occurred in 30 per cent of the brands 

 examined. 



Analysis of 20 samples of burned lime, limestone, and lime refuse are 

 included. 



A list of brands registered for sale since January 28, 1918, for the fiscal year 

 ended October 31, 1918, is presented. 



Fertilizer reg'istrations for 1919, C. S. Cathcart (Neio Jersey l^tas. Bnl. 335 

 (1919), pp. 5-36). — This comprises a tabulated statement of all the brands of 

 fertilizer materials and mixed fertilizers registered in New Jersey up to Jan- 

 uary 30, 1919, for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1919. 



AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 



[Activities of the] department cf botanical research, D. T. 1\IacDougal 

 (Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book, 11 (1918), p. 55). — Introducing more or 

 less detailed reports of members of the institution, the director states that 

 during the year 1918 the scope of experimentation has been narrowed and sub- 

 ordinated to the preparation of manuscripts and that exploration and field 

 work have been reduced, as also has collaboration with workers outside the 

 institution. 



Much attention has been devoted to the study of fundamental problems in 

 carbohydrate metabolism and to the imbibitional action of the plant colloids in 

 growth, all of the water relations of the plant being necessarily taken into con- 

 sideration. An adequate physical explanation of the origin and action of the 

 spinose and succulent plants constituting the characteristic desert vegetation 

 has been found. Important geographic and ecological results have been formu- 

 lated, some of which are noted below or previously. 



Development of conceptions included in growth, D. T. IMacDougal (Car- 

 negie In,st. Washington Year Book, 11 (1918), pp. 55-51). — As preliminary to 

 the reports and discussions which follow, it is stated that three main concep- 

 tions concerning growth and its developmental aspects in plants are to be met in 

 the history of physiology during the last half century. The earliest, that of 

 special substances aiipearing in developmental and seasonal crises and consid- 

 ered necessary for growth and for the origination and development of repro- 

 ductive organs or of any bud, has given place to the view that formative ma- 

 terial as such has no actual existence. From the present standpoint it is 

 assumed that growth proceeds from and depends upon states, combinations, or 

 accumulations in connection with living matter rather than from any differen- 

 tiated substance. 



The second aspect of the subject deals with the incorporation of new material 

 in the cell and its subsequent distension. The protoplast is dealt with as a 

 tonoplast, the center and seat of energy being the vacuole, while an indispensable 

 organ is an ideal semipermeable membrane acting according to the conception 

 of Pfeffer and de Vries. 



The third group of inquiries has been directed toward measurements for estab- 

 lishing the physical constants of growth, the subject having formerly been dealt 

 u-ith as a unified process or as a series of successive reactions in studies of tem- 

 perature effects. 



It is held that the chief defect in all three groups of research is in the neglect 

 of the fact that the metabolism upon which growth depends is a constellation, 

 not a linear series of transformations, and that the most important part of the 



