Dec. 1893.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUUGII. 29 



and his life justified its use. He will be remembered as 

 one of our most successlul merchants, a man of large-hearted 

 charity, and a liberal encourager of scientific horticulture. 



LIST OF BOTANICAL TAFERS BY MR. CHARLES JEXNER. 



1. A Comparative View of the more Important Stages of Development 



of the Higher Cryptogamia and Phanerogamia. Trans. Bot. Soc. 

 Edin., vol. v., p. 55. 



2. On the Accessory Organs of the Hybrid Selaginella. Trans. Bot. 



Soc. Edin., vol. viii., p. 169. 



3. On the History and Structure of LTrococcus. Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., 



vol. viii., p. 318. 



4. On the Study of Botany as a Branch of Mental Training. Trans. Bot. 



Soc. Edin., vol. x., p. 1. 



5. Notice of a New Carduus gathered during a Botanical Excursion in 



Ross-shire. By ^Ir. Charles Howie and Mr. Charles Jenner. 

 Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. ix., p. 257. 



6. On Spores. Edin. New Pliil. Jour., vol. iii., p. 2G9. 



The Non-Assimilation of Atmospheric Nitrogen by 

 Germinating Barley. (From Experiments made in 1880.) 

 By T. Cutiibert Day. 



(With Zincographs, Figs. 1 and 2.) 



The question of the direct fixation of atmospheric nitrogen 

 by growing plants seems to have been an attractive problem 

 to workers in the field of vegetable physiology, judging by 

 the number of experimenters who have, at different times,, 

 attacked the subject. I believe it is generally acknowledged 

 that plants, by themselves, are not able to make any direct 

 use of the element which constitutes four-fifths of the 

 atmosphere, though, by the aid of certain organisms which 

 attach themselves to the roots of some plants, a direct 

 assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen takes place, as has 

 been amply proved by the researches of Hellreigel and 

 AYilfarth, Berthelot, Frank, Schloesing, Lawes and Gilbert, 

 and others. It is not my purpose to-night to deal with plants 

 as they grow in the soil, but with the germinating seeds of 

 a well-known cereal, namely, barley. Do the seeds of 

 barley take up any nitrogen from the air during the 

 germinating stage of growth ? The question does not 

 seem to be of much importance, but as, some years ago, 

 I commenced to study some points in connection with 

 the respiration of germinating barley, it was absolutely 



