[Vor. 5 
282 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
are permitted to air for some time after etherization could 
not be determined with the material at hand, but this is a point 
worthy of study. In regard to the results obtained, it is of 
interest to note that they are related to the conclusions of 
Palladin (710) and Appleman (710, 15). The former con- 
cluded from experiments with Vicia Faba that toxic agents 
acted as inhibitors of respiration; the latter investigator 
found that catalase action in the potato bore a direct relation 
to respiratory activity,—decreasing under the same conditions 
as respiration. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH BARLEY 
In view of the inconclusive and inconcordant results ob- 
tained from the action of the Gladiolus extracts upon the sev- 
eral carbohydrate substrates, it seemed advisable to carry out 
a supplementary series of experiments with germinated bar- 
ley, using methods which should exclude the introduction of in- 
determinable factors of error, or which would at least indicate 
the source and amount of the error resulting from such 
methods. An experimental test of the Dubois (’83) theory of 
the dehydration of tissues by anaesthetics was also made at 
this time. 
The material used was seed of barley (Hordeum vulgare). 
Only plump and apparently viable grains were selected. 
These were disinfected by the calcium hypochlorite method of 
Wilson (715), as modified by Dr. Duggar in this laboratory. 
The seeds were treated for one hour with a 20 per cent solu- 
tion of Javelle water, rinsed in tap water, and germinated be- 
tween moist filter paper. With this treatment germination 
of more than 95 per cent was secured. A preliminary trial 
of seeds in 0.1 per cent aqueous solution of mercuric bichloride 
for two hours proved to be highly injurious, not more than a 
two or three per cent germination resulting. This is a very 
much weaker solution than that used by Brown (’09) in his 
study of seed-coat permeability. 
In all cases the seeds were allowed to germinate until the 
plumules had reached a length of 1-1.5 em. and the rootlets 
1 еш. or less. For the dehydration test two lots of germinated 
