10 Proceedings. 



c7ass;/fcat/on of the plant should be deemed important. The methods of 

 botanical instruction, or what too often passes for it in American schools, 

 colleges and universities, are discussed and the better developments in 

 some particularly fortunate institutions are briefly chronicled. In conclu- 

 sion the constructive work and influence of men like Draper or Bessey is 

 con.sidered and an effort is made to show the urgent need of a still more 

 widespread reform. The paper is published in full in Education, March^ 

 1892. 



Preliminary notes on the influence of anaesthetics on 

 plant transpiration, by Dr. A. Schneider. 



[abstract.] 



The paper gives a brief review and criticism of Jumelle's memoir on the 

 same subject. Jumelle came to the conclusion that ether increases trans- 

 piration in the light, but decreases it in the dark. The increase in light is 

 supposed to be due to the influence of ether on assimilation. Ether de- 

 creases assimilation and hence those rays of the sun which were engaged in 

 assimilation are now utilized in "chlorophyllian transpiration." Lommen, 

 in 1891, made a series of experiments which apparently verified Jumelle's 

 conclusions. 



Jumelle's as well as Lommen's experiments are insuflScient because 

 they used only parts of plants (leaves and branches), and in that they con- 

 founded evaporation and transpiration. 



In the writer's experiments, a modified and improved Kohl transpira- 

 tion apparatus was used which allowed the use of the entire plant, root 

 and all. Various anaesthetics as ether, chloroform and amyl-nitrite w^ere 

 used. The efi'ect of ether on protoplasmic movements in hair cells of 

 Primula sinensis, Petunia violacea, and Lycopersicum esculentum was care- 

 fully noted. The influence of the various colors of the solar spectrum on 

 transpiration under normal conditions and combined with the anaesthetics 

 was then taken up and also the influence of anaesthetics with moisture. 

 Finally a series of control experiments was made with leaflets of Solanum 

 tuberosum. 



The summing up of all the results obtained led to the following conclu- 

 sions: 



1. Ether retards protoplasmic action. Given in sufllicient doses it kills 

 protoplasm. 



2. Ether retards transpiration by retarding assimilation. 



3. Ether retards transpiration in both Hght and darkness, in fact, 

 under all conditions. 



4. The increased loss of water vapor by the anaestheticized vegetable 

 tissue is due to the fact that the anaesthetic has modified the primordial 

 iitricle, thus allowing evaporation to take place, and not transpiration. 



5. Periods of maximum transpiration and assimilation coincide. 



James W. Swan, White Bear Beach, and Professor I. H. 

 Orcutt, Brookings, South Dakota, were elected members. 



