1907] CURRENT LITERATURE 355 
ling in the soil and partly by damping off. A large proportion of the plants which 
are attacked after breaking through the ground recover by subsequent healing of 
the injured shins. After showing that the fungus is dependent upon oxygen for 
growth, the writer states his belief that the fungus attacks the plants at the surface 
of the ground because here only there exists a zone with sufficient oxygen and yet 
not too dry for the growth. 
It may be mentioned that the sore-shin fungus of the United States is believed 
by Duccar and Stewart’s to be Rhizoctonia. Baty, however, failed to find the 
typical sclerotia of this genus in the Egyptian form, so that it is possible that the 
two forms are not identical, unless the sclerotia have been been overlooked.— 
H. HASSELBRING. 
Electroculture.—GAssNER, before he was called to the University of Monte- 
video, had begun some investigations on the effect of electric currents, constant 
and alternating, which, though incomplete, had some interesting results.2° The 
constant current in general proved injurious (cj. his results and PLowMAn’s 
on galvanotropism noted in this journal). The alternating current, when the 
alternations were rapid enough, was not injurious because it did not act at all; 
it was not found advantageous, as LOWENHERz reports.?7_ It does kill grubs and 
worms in the soil when not hurtful to plants and may thus be useful practically. 
With induced currents from a frictional machine, potted barley grew better when 
electrified for 13-14 hours daily from needle-points above the plants, which 
accords with the earlier results of LemstrOm (1890) and CHopAT (1892). One 
notable fact was the threefold evaporation from the electrified plants, as com- 
pared with the controls. Even greater differences, 6:1, appeared when porcelain 
dishes filled with water were substituted for the pots.—C. R. B 
Palisade cells.—RAUNKIAER decides in favor of STAHL’s view, that palisade 
cells owe their form to light, as against AREScHovG’s that transpiration is the 
determining cause, from his studies upon the palisade of Scirpus lacustris.2*> The 
leaves of plants growing somewhat apart from the clump show equally well- 
developed palisade cells in the leaf above water and to a depth of 20™. From 
this point to a depth of 50°™ the length of the palisade cells gradually diminishes. 
similar plants growing crowded and therefore shaded, no palisade cells are 
distinguishable in the submerged parts, nor in the aerial region up to a height 
of 30-40°™, where they commence to appear. In this case there is clear evi- 
dence that the external factor, light, calls forth this differentiation. In other 
25 The sterile fungus Rhizoctonia. Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta. and N. Y. 
Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 186. 1901 
26 GaSSNER, G., Zur face der Elektrokultur. 
25:326~-38. 1907. 
27 LOWENHERz, Versuche iiber Elektrokultur. Zeit. Pfl.-krankh. 15:137 ff. 1905. 
28 RAUNKIaR, C., Nogle Iagttagelser og Forseg over Aarsagerne til Palissadecel- 
lernes Form og Stilling. (Sur les causes qui déterminent la forme at l’orientation des 
cellules palissades.) Bot. Tidsskrift 27:293-311. 1906. 
Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 
