828 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



cusses the various generations of rusts and the relation of the uredo forms of 

 some species to the other stages occurring in their life histories. 



Field, garden, and orchard crops of the Bombay Presidency, G. A. Gammie 

 (Dcpt. A(ji: Bombay Bui. 30, pp. IV + ll'i). — Botanical diagnoses are given of 

 orders, genera, and species of the field, garden, and orchard crops of the Bom- 

 bay I'residency, 38 orders of plants being represented. The different orders, 

 genera, and species are described in more or less botanical terms, and economic 

 notes are given on each species and variety. 



Seeds and plants imported during the period from January 1 to March 31, 

 1908. Inventory No. 14 (U. S. Dept. Agi:, Bur. Plant Indus. But. 137, pp. 

 64 ) . — This is the fourteenth inventory of seeds and plants imported through the 

 Section of Seed and Plant Introduction and embraces 778 items, the introduc- 

 tions received between January 1 and March 31, 1908. Most of these introduc- 

 tions were from China, being a portion of the collection of F. N. Meyei", agri- 

 cultural explorer. 



The germination of some grass seed and a contribution to the study of 

 aleurone grains, A. Guilliebmond (Arch. Anat. Micros., 10 (1908), No. 2, 

 pp. 141-226, pis. .'/, figs. 13). — A cytological study was made of the aleurone 

 grains, and especially of the globoids, of certain grasses, and the author records 

 various phenomena in the germination of seed of barley, wheat, and maize. 



The aleurone grains of grasses are formed just as in the lupines from a funda- 

 mental mass of proteids by the inclusion of globoids whose number and size 

 vary with the different species. The globoids by their reaction appear to be 

 nitrogenous material and resemble volutin. Aleurone grains are to be found 

 not only in the cotyledons and embryo of the seed but also in certain secretory 

 cells of the epidermis. They are formed in the vacuoles, the globoids first 

 appearing, and around these are deposited the proteids in the form of minute 

 granules. During germination, the aleurone grains are transformed, the pro- 

 teid granules disappearing first, and the globoids persisting for 5 or G days. 

 The globoids are to be considered as reseiwe material. The epidermal cells 

 of the cotyledons, believed bj' Brown and Morris to be the seat of diastatic 

 .secretion, also contain soluble starch, fat, and aleurone grains. 



Chemical processes accompanying the germination of seeds, F. Scurti and 

 A. Parrozzani (Gaz. Chim. Itul., 38 (1908), I, No. 2, pp. 216-227; abs. in Jour. 

 Chem. Soc. [Londoti], 94 (1908), No. 547, II, p. .'/77).— A study was made of the 

 proteolytic changes occurring in sunflower seeds, comparisons being made with 

 the niti'Ogenous compounds found in etiolated shoots of the same seeds The 

 authors identified xanthin, hj-poxauthln, arginin, histidin, lysln, and cholin, in 

 addition to which the seeds contained a small proportion of tyrosin. The con- 

 clusion is drawn that in so far as the proteids are concerned, natural germina- 

 tion consists of an ordinary proteolysis quite analogous to that produced by the 

 action of the isolated enzyms on the isolated proteins. 



In the authors' experiments, no asparagin was formed during the digestion of 

 sunflower seeds, nor during the initial period of their natural germination, 

 although it made its appearance during the more advanced stages of the germi- 

 native process. This confirms the view that asparagin is not a direct product 

 of the resolution of proteids, but is a secondary product formed by special 

 transformations at the expense of the primary products. 



The production of dry matter and chlorophyll in the higher plants under 

 the influence of different intensities of light, W. I>ubimenko (Ann. Hci. Nat. 

 Bot., 9. ser., 7 (1908). No. 3-6, pp. 321-415, figs. 16).— In previous publications 

 (E. S. R., 19, pp. 831, 930), the author has discussed various phases of his inves- 

 tigations on the relation of light to chlorophyll, and in the present iiaper a 



