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1905] CURRENT LITERATURE 315 
growing points of several shoots were encased in plaster,and after four weeks’ 
time buds appeared along the margin*of the leaves. Upon removing the plaster 
the buds of the shoot continued growing. In this plant the leaf buds arise from 
already existing growing points. In Begonia, however, none of these are present 
on the leaf, and here also continued removal of the growing point of the shoot 
resulted in the development of buds on the leaves. 
In Streptocarpus Wendlandi when the inflorescence is removed a number of 
the adventitious shoots develop. The interesting feature about these is that they 
present seedling characters, viz., each has a short shoot-like axis and one large 
leaf corresponding to the large cotyledon, the opposite leaf being almost invisible 
or entirely suppressed.—W. B. McCatium. 
LECLERC Du SABLON3° finds that the carbohydrate and nitrogenous reserve 
foods of trees reach their maxima in the autumn, and their minimain May or June 
after the formation of the leaves and shoots of the season. For carbohydrates 
the roots are more marked reservoirs than the stems, and the leaves do not func- 
tion as a storage place. Nitrogenous reserves, however, are more abundant in 
leaves than in stems or roots, diminishing from spring to autumn, at first very 
rapidly, then slowly. The stem and roots give up to leaves in process of forma- 
tion most of their nitrogenous food, and their store is replenished little by little 
during the season. The fats are scarce in stems or roots; they are more abundant 
in leaves, in which they increase from spring to autumn. Water is at a maximum 
in early spring and a minimum in autumn. Autumn, when the water is at a 
minimum and the reserve food at a maximum, is the most favorable time for the 
transplantation of trees. SABLON seems to have overlooked some important 
German work on reserve food in trees, especially that of MUELLER.—C. R. B. 
BERTRAND! obtained from pure cultures of various orchids the same fungus, 
and found that the seeds of these species, sowed with this fungus (an Oospora ?) 
to the exclusion of other micro-organisms, gave normal plants, regularly infested. 
Cypripedium seeds grown aseptically do not develop; Cattleya embryos grow 
to the spherule stage and no further unless then infected; Bletia hyacinthina 
develops a stem and some leaves, but does not pass this stage unless infected, 
when it pursues a normal course. The action of the fungus is to incite growth 
In cells other than those attacked. This knowledge will be useful to growers. 
In a discussion of tuberization BERTRAND expresses the view that though tuberi- 
zation is an anomaly of growth (from the morphological point of view) due to an 
abnormal concentration of the sap, in nature this concentration is brought about 
not by any of the methods of the laboratory (which have been urged as disproving 
this theory of tuberization), but by the attacks of endophytic fungi—C. R. B. 
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3° SABLON, LECLERC DU, Recherches physiologiques sur les matiéres de réserves 
des arbres. Rev. Gén. Bot. 16: 341-368, 386-401. 1904. 
ERTRAND, N., Recherches expérimentales sur les Orchidées. Rev. Gén. 
Bot. 16: 458-476, pls. IS-19. 1904. 
