424 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 480. 



dition of affairs which can not be pointed 

 out here. 



In the interior of the plant, with the 

 large amount of wall surface, and, in ease 

 of storage cells, of solids like starch grains, 

 etc., adsorption may also play a consider- 

 able role. It seems probable' that in addi- 

 tion to osmosis and diffusion the distribu- 

 tion of dissolved materials in the plant 

 may be very largely affected by adsorption. 

 It seems probable that this form in which 

 energy is exerted may play a part of un- 

 suspected importance in the plant. Not 

 the least important, perhaps, may be the 

 effect of adsorbing surfaces in bringing 

 about at points of greatest activity an in- 

 creased concentration of the raw materials 

 needed in connection with these processes. 



The efficiency of bacteria as adsorbing 

 bodies is probably great and the physio- 

 logical activity of minute organisms may 

 be in part due to the energy of adsorption, 

 which brings about a concentration of the 

 medium at the surfaces of the organisms, 

 making possible the characteristically active 

 metabolism even in dilute media. Further 

 experiments along the various lines here in- 

 dicated are in progress. 



An Exhibition of Several New Precision 

 Appliances for Investigation and Demon- 

 stration in Plant Physiology : Professor 

 W. F. Ganong, Smith College. 

 It was pointed out that the development 

 of makeshift or improvised apparatus for 

 plant physiology has gone as far as prac- 

 tically possible, and farther than is edu- 

 cationally and scientifically desirable, and 

 that the next movement in this subject 

 should be towards the development of nor- 

 mal apparatus, pieces which will be manu- 

 factured for the specific work to be done or 

 topic to be studied, which will perform that 

 work with accuracy and with convenience 

 and economy of time in manipulation, and 

 which will be obtainable from the supply 



companies precisely as physical and chem- 

 ical appliances are. Several new pieces, 

 which have been invented by the exhibitor, 

 were then exhibited. They are to be manu- 

 factured and offered for sale under his 

 supervision by the Bausch & Lomb Optical 

 Co. The pieces exhibited included (1) a 

 new clinostat, very compact, capable of 

 working in any position whatsoever, power- 

 ful enough to carry a five- or six-inch pot 

 in any position, needing winding but once 

 in two days; (2) a new portable clamp- 

 stand for apparatus, with handles for 

 carrying it about, levelling screws, special 

 positions for the rods, and new special 

 clamps; (3) an autographic transpirometer, 

 which can be used with any balance sensi- 

 tive to a gram, and which records precisely 

 on a drum the transpiration of a plant for 

 a week; (4) a new photosynthometer, by 

 which the exchange of gases in photosyn- 

 thesis may be exactly and conveniently 

 measured, either for demonstration of the 

 processes to classes, or in investigation for 

 particular plants; (5) a new leaf clasp 

 chamber for use wherever it is desired to 

 apply patterns, cobalt chloride paper or 

 other object exactly matching upon the two 

 faces of the leaf; (6) a new leaf chamber 

 for holding a leaf under approximately 

 normal conditions perfectly flat in any 

 desired position while studying various 

 phases of photosynthesis, etc. The appa- 

 ratus is all mechanically unexceptionable, 

 and it was announced that other pieces are 

 in preparation and more or less advanced 

 towards completion. 



On the Spores of Certain Coniferce: Pro- 

 fessor W. C. CoKER, University of North 

 Carolina. 



It has been long known that the mature 

 pollen grain of a number of conifers con- 

 tains no sterile prothallial cell. The pos- 

 sibility still remained, however, that one 

 or more such cells might be cut off early in 



