C. A. BARBER 163 



is, the completion of the seedling analyses in the limited period of ripening is 

 an extremely difficult matter, and many seedlings suffer from not being 

 analysed at their optimum. An innovation has been introdliced in the petty 

 analyses during the 1915 cropping season, which promises to Cjuicken up the 

 work in future. On going through any batch of seedlings for the first 

 time, it is considered sufficient, in the place of the full petty analysis, merely 

 to take the Brix reading of the juice, and at once to pass on to other seedlings 

 if this does not reach a certain figure. This, it is claimed, will give a fair 

 indication both of the ripening and of the relative value of the seedlings. 

 Further, relying on the theory of phytomers, whereby each segment of a 

 plant with its leaf or leaves is considered to be a more or less inde- 

 pendent ])art,i an attempt has been made with some success to get an early 

 indication of the ultimate value of a seedling by analysing some of the lower, 

 apparently mature joints. The limiting joint thus far chosen has been the 

 highest in which the attached leaf has completely withered. It is a question 

 as to what further changes take place in the juice contained in such a joint, but 

 the joints of the canes are very clearly separated from one another by their 

 internal structure, and it is difficult to see how the juice in them will 

 undergo great changes after the supplying leaf has died. The results 

 obtained are on the whole suggestive, and there seems to be some 

 promise, on the adoption of the analysis of the cane up to the highest 

 dead leaf, of obtaining early indications as to which seedlings are worth 

 going on with. If the method proves to be fairly satisfactory, it will 

 be possible to rule out in any batch a large number of inferior seedlings 

 and thus save much time in the final analysis. 



' This must not be taken too literally and is jjerhaps more of a morphological 

 than a physiological conception. That neighbouring joints in a growing cane are without 

 influence on one another is very unlikely, and this lack of independence has been strongly 

 brought out by J. Kuijper in his paper " Is een blad met un internodium bij het riet als un 

 physiologische eenheid op te vatten " ? Med. Prmfst. v d. Java-Suikerwdusirie. Deel V. No. 

 15, 1915. 



