AGRICULTURAL. BOTANY. 531 



that the transformation of the less soluble phosphoric acid compound into the 

 more soluble does not occur in the culture medium, but that this process is 

 slower than the opposite one of transforming the more soluble into the less 

 soluble form. 



Under the conditions of the experiments the formation of carbon dioxid 

 reached its maximum in the first 5 to 10 days of the cultures. 



Experiments with green manure seed by inoculation with Professor Bot- 

 tomley's nitro-bacterine culture, H. T. Easterby {Ann. Rpt. Bur. Sugar Expt. 

 Stas. [Queensland], 1910, pp. 10, 11). — The results of experiments with this 

 nitro-bacterine culture are reported for the Iron Age cowpea, small red 

 Mauritius bean, and large black Mauritius bean. 



The yield of fodder from the inoculated seed showed a gain of 1.37 tons per 

 acre for the Iron Age cowpea and of about 0.5 ton per acre for the red Mauri- 

 tius bean, while the large black Mauritius bean, on the contrary, showed a gain 

 of 1.62 tons per acre in favor of the uninoculated seed. 



Analyses of the samples from the inoculated and uninoculated crops showed 

 a decided advantage in using the culture, as the percentage of nitrogen was 

 uniformly higher in the inoculated than in the uninoculated crop. 



The place in which nitrates are utilized by plants, C. Acqua (Atti B. 

 Accad. Lincei, Rend. CI. Sci. Fis., Mat. e Nat., 5. ser., 19 {1910), I, No. 6, 

 pp. 339-3U; abs. in Jour. Cheni. 8oc. [London], 9S (.1910), No. 512, II, p. 

 533). — The author states that wheat treated with a solution of a radioactive 

 salt, such as uranyl nitrate, and then germinated revealed by the electroscopic 

 method an accumulation of active material in the apex of the roots. Upon 

 microscopic examination of the tissues there was found an insoluble yellow de- 

 posit, probably uranic oxid, in the dermatogen near the apex, and in prolonged 

 cultures it was also present in the adjacent lower layers of tissue. As this 

 deposit is formed by uranyl nitrate and scarcely at all by other uranium salts, 

 the author regards the phenomenon as due to the decomposition of the nitrate 

 with utilization of the nitrogen by the plant, and consequent deposition of the 

 oxid. 



Uranium being generally injurious in its action to plants, preliminary experi- 

 ments were carried on with mauganous nitrate solutions on wheat and beans. 

 The results given were similar to those described above, an insoluble black 

 deposit being formed near the root tips. 



Protein formation in ripening' seeds, E. Schulze and E. Wintekstein 

 {Ztschr. Physiol. Chenv., 65 (1910), No. 5-6, pp. If31-J,16; ahs. in Jour. Chem. 

 Soe. [London], 98 (1910), No. 578, II, p. 6U)-—-^ study of the ripening of 

 leguminous seeds showed a considerable increase in the percentage of proteids, 

 while the nonproteid nitrogen diminished. In the case of beans (Phaseolus 

 vulgaris), no absolute decrease in nonproteid nitrogen was observed. Peas, 

 however, showed a loss of nonproteid nitrogen during ripening, but not enough 

 to account for the increase of proteids. 



In examining the hulls of peas and beans, they were found to contain, in addi- 

 tion to considerable asparagin, small quantities of a number of nonproteid 

 nitrogenous compounds, cholin, and trigouellin. The nonproteid nitrogenous 

 compounds were very similar to those supplied to leguminous seedlings from the 

 cotyledons. 



Unripe pea seeds were found to contain very little asparagin, but they con- 

 tained glutamin, which has not yet been detected in the hulls. The authors sug- 

 gest that asparagin migrates from the hulls to the seeds, where it is rapidly 

 utilized for the production of proteids, and that glutamin may also be present 

 in the hulls and pass into the seeds, where it accumulates. 



