218 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1049 



the strictly socializing worh of our actual 

 high schools more definite, more effective and 

 more nearly universal." The sixty-seven 

 pages of bibliography at the close of the book 

 deserve the highest praise. The titles are 

 carefully selected, well arranged, and in part 

 annotated. The editor has rendered a great 

 service to students of secondary education, 

 especially those offering courses in the subject. 

 Clayton C. Kohl 



PLANT AUTOGBAPHS-^ 

 The importance of investigations on physi- 

 ology of plants lies in the fact that it is only 

 by the study of the simpler phenomena of irri- 

 tability in the vegetal organisms that it is 

 possible to elucidate the more complex physio- 

 logical reactions in the animal. The difficulty 

 of investigation lies in the apparent immo- 

 bility of the plant. It is often impossible by 

 visual inspection to distinguish even betvceen 

 specimens, one of which is alive and the other 

 killed. Means have, therefore, to be discovered 

 by which the plant itself is made to reveal its 

 internal condition, and changes of that condi- 

 tion, by characteristic signals recorded by it. 

 These responsive reactions may manifest 

 themselves in change of form or in change of 

 electric conditions. In his investigations the 

 author has employed both methods of mechan- 

 ical and electric response. 



In recording mechanical response great error 

 is introduced from friction of the VTriter 

 against the recording surface. This has been 

 overcome in the author's Resonant Recorder, 

 where the record consists of a series of inter- 

 mittent dots due to the vibration of the writ- 

 ing point. In this manner it is possible to 

 record time-intervals as short as a thousandth 

 part of a second. Moreover in order to elimi- 

 nate completely all personal equation, the 

 apparatus has been made perfectly automatic. 

 Thus the plant attached to the recording ap- 

 paratus is automatically excited by a stimulus 

 absolutely constant. In answer to this it 



lAbstraet of a paper read before Section G of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science at the Philadelphia meeting, by Professor 

 J. C. Bose. 



makes its ovm responsive record, goes through 

 its period of recovery and embarks on the same 

 cycle over again without assistance at any 

 point from the observer. 



Mimosa exhibits a remarkable periodic 

 variation of excitability; the response being 

 practically abolished in the early hours of the 

 morning, the sensibility is gradually increased 

 to a maximum by noon. The latent period of 

 the leaf is one six hundredth part of a second. 

 Crucial tests of the excitatory character of 

 transmitted impulse are afforded by physio- 

 logical blocks produced by the local applica- 

 tion of cold, of poison and electrotonic block. 

 These prove that the transmission of excita- 

 tion in Mimosa is a process fundamentally 

 similar to that occurring in the animal. The 

 effects of drugs on plants are remarkably 

 similar to the effects on animal tissues. The 

 characteristics of the rhythmic tissues in ani- 

 mals and plants are precisely similar. There 

 is hardly a single phenomenon of irritability 

 observed in the animal, which is not also to 

 be found in the plant. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



INHERITANCE IN THE HONEY BEE 



More or less time has been devoted by the 

 writer, during the past four years, to a study 

 of inheritance in the honey bee, as a project 

 under the Adams Fund. Innumerable ob- 

 stacles to the progress of this investigation 

 have presented themselves, but sufficient data 

 have accumulated to justify the announcement 

 of a few interesting points. 



The matings have been made, for the most 

 part, at an isolated mating station on the Gulf 

 Coast prairie, about forty miles northwest of 

 Houston, Texas. The location of the station 

 is almost ideal for this purpose, for there are 

 no trees or shrubs affording shelter for bees 

 and no bees occur except those purposely 

 taken to the mating station. 



The matings thus far have been confined to 

 crosses between the Italian and Carniolan 

 races. As is well known, the pure bees of the 

 former race are distinctly yellow, while those 

 of the latter are more or less gray, but always, 

 when pure, devoid of yellow color. For the 



