UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 81 
every five days for a period of fifty days show a gradual 
rise in the conductivity, which becomes more rapid after ~ 
the tenth day. This is no doubt due to the results of 
bacterial and fungous action on the decomposition of the 
tissues and the setting free of electrolytes. The curve 
for the green weight of the tops rises for the first ten days 
and then declines. After ten days in distilled water 
the complete normality of the plants no longer existed, 
a growth condition previously referred to. 
Believing that the question of injury to plants in dis- 
tilled water was intimately bound up with that of lack of 
reserve food materials, an experiment was carried out 
bearing upon this point. Plants were grown for varying 
periods in full nutrient solution and then transferred to 
distilled water whose conductivity was then taken at two- 
day intervals for twenty days. For comparison, read- 
ings were also taken of distilled water the plants in 
which had not been in the full nutrient solution at all. It 
was found that these latter deteriorated most rapidly and 
gave the highest conductivity readings, whereas those 
in the full nutrient solution longest before being placed 
in the distilled water gave the lowest readings at the end 
of the twenty days. 
The results obtained seem plainly to indicate that 
injury which plants sustain in distilled water is very 
closely related either to the lack of available nutrients 
in the medium or of reserve food material in the tissues. 
A seedling is in an exceedingly plastic state of growth. 
If no food materials become available the embryonic 
tissues which are in such an active condition of growth 
soon become disorganized, possibly suffering partial auto- 
lysis and becoming the prey to bacterial and fungous 
action. We would expect, therefore that the larger the 
seeds (and hence also the supply of stored materials), 
the longer the seedlings could remain in distilled water 
before deterioration. Comparison of True’s results on 
Lupinus with those here presented on Pisum sativum 
and Vicia faba seems to fulfill that expectation. We 
should also expect that the more nutrient materials the 
plant absorbed, the better it would be able later to with- 
stand any deteriorating influences in the distilled water, 
