24 UNIV. OF N. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 221 



which is found only in small quantities in the celery plants at this season 

 of the 5^ear. It was impossible to obtain constant results with standard 

 methods, the difficulty evidently being due to the fact that the starch 

 grains are imbedded within plastids and are, therefore, not reached by 

 the usual reagents. Various special treatments were tried to render 

 starch available, but no satisfactory method was arrived at. 



The results with sugars appear to be most accurate and of greatest 

 value. Reducing sugar is relatively abundant, particularly in the inner 

 leaves and petioles, which are the portions of the plant marketed after 

 storage. There was an increase in the amount of reducing sugar shortly 

 after the plants were placed in the pit, the percentage of this substance in 

 the fresh weight rising from 0.8 to 1.0 during the first two weeks. After 

 this time, however, it remained practically stationary for the next six 

 weeks. The sucrose, on the other hand, increased steadily from the 

 beginning of the storage period until the close on December 8, especially 

 in the stems and the inner petioles. The celery becomes increasingly 

 sweeter and more tender as the storage period advances. In early 

 December the stalks are decidedly sweeter to the taste than in late 

 October. The bettering of the quality is more closely correlated with the 

 gradual increase in sucrose than with the sudden rise in reducing sugar 

 at the outset of the storage period. It appears, therefore, that the 

 sweeter qualit}^ of the celery stalks at the end of the storage period must 

 be due to increase in sucrose rather than increase in reducing sugar. 



It was thought possible that an accumulation of water soluble pentosans 

 would occur in the tissues during the period that they are exposed to cold 

 weather in the storage pit. This, however, was not found to be the case. 



It was not expected that the nitrogen would change, but the analysis 

 showed clearly that the per cent of nitrogen increases materially in the 

 inner portion of the plant. Since it is impossible for much nitrogen to be 

 taken from the soil by the roots under the conditions of the storage, it 

 appears that the source of nitrogen must be the older leaves in the outer 

 portion of the plant which shrivel and dry while the plants are in storage. 



An attempt was made to determine whether the glucoside apiin is 

 present in appreciable quantities and whether it is responsible for the 

 characteristic flavor of celery, but it was not possible to correlate the 

 celery flavor with its presence. 



Anatomical studies were made to determine the structure of the petioles 

 and the nature of the strings so frequently objectionable. Contrary to 

 the published opinion of previous investigators, who have believed that 

 the strings are formed out of collenchyma tissue which is found just 

 beneath the ribs, our investigations seem to indicate that the strings 

 are composed of relatively hard and lignified xylem cells in the fibro- 

 vascular bundles. Xylem tissue is the only tissue which shows lignifica- 

 tion by the phloroglucine — HCl test and by staining with safranine. 

 The very simple test of breaking the stems and extracting the strings 

 indicates that they are more deeply imbedded in the tissue than are the 

 collenchyma cells. 



Variety Test of Fruits {Hatch Fund) 



No important results have been obtained this season in the variety 

 test project in charge of G. F. Potter and S. W. Wentworth. In the 

 commercial markets of the year, the outstanding and significant fact is 



