274 SUMMARY OF OURUENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ness ceases, and cannot again be restored. The same is the case if 

 tbo growing plant is placed for ten minutes in an atmosphere of 

 hydrogen, although this does not entirely destroy the power of growing 

 in length. 



Ascent of Water in Plants.*— F. Elfving brings forward argu- 

 ments against Sachs's view of the ascent of water in phmts by imbi- 

 bition. In the wood of Conifers, as the young wood-cells lose their 

 protoplasm, water, containing air in solution, occupies the cavity, and 

 bubbles of air are formed alternating with drops of water, — in fact, a 

 series of " chapelets de Jamin " ; only, instead of being simple and in 

 one long tube, each one is complex, and the broken water-columns are 

 confined in closed chambers permeable to water, but not to air, at 

 the bordered pits, and therefore communicating with one another. 

 According to Jamin's researches, these columns of water may be of 

 any height ; and the suspension of columns of very great height in 

 lofty trees presents no mechanical difficulty. The molecules of water 

 can pass between the supporting bubbles of air as if they had no 

 weight, since it is only the movement of the masses of water as a 

 whole in a longitudinal direction which is prevented by the capillary 

 forces in the chapelet de Jamin. The individual particles of water 

 have perfect freedom of motion, and will of course travel towards 

 the transpiration surfaces. Elfving claims for his theory that it 

 explains many hitherto inexplicable facts in the phenomena of the 

 circulation of fluids in trees. 



Formation of Albumen in Green Plants.f — Dr. Emerling has 

 carried on a series of experiments on 1000 plants of Vicia Faba, 

 examining them at different stages of their growth, for the purpose of 

 determining whether the amido-acids are formed by synthesis in the 

 assimilating organs, or by the decomposition of albumen already 

 present. His general results favour the former hypothesis. These 

 acids are first used up in the development of the roots and leaves. 

 After the complete development of the leaves they accumulate in the 

 rudimentary fruits, and are used up in their rapid growth ; while 

 the pods form receptacles for the non-albuminous substances, which 

 they gradually give up to the seeds during the ripening of the latter. 

 If this hypothesis is correct, the only mode in which albuminoids are 

 formed is by derivation from the amido-acids ; while, on the other 

 hand, if the hypothesis is accepted that the amido-acids are derived 

 from albuminoids, the latter must be formed in two different ways, 

 which is improbable, considering their very complicated composition. 

 The very early period at which the amido-acids are formed is also 

 unfavourable to the second hypothesis. 



Formation of Hydrochloric Acid in Plants.+ — W. Detmer has 

 convinced hinif^elf, by a series of exj)eriments, that organic acids, and 

 especially citric acid, have the power of decomposing the chlorides of 



• Act. Soc. Scient. Fenn., xiv. (1884). See Nature, xxx. (1884) p. 561. 

 t Vera. Dcutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzte Magdeburg, Sept. 20, 1884. See Bot. 

 Centralbl., xx. (1884) p. 285. 



J Bot. Ztg.. xlii. (1884) pp. 791-7. See this Journal, iv. (1884) p. 90. 



