99 



often was found leaning its ice loaded branches on other planti 

 growing beside it, while the low branching Crataegus rested its 

 weight on the ground. 



Without question the effects of injury will be apparent in the 

 storm area for decades to come. Ashe,* writing from the view- 

 point of a forest inspector, states that in the Appalachian forests 

 he has noted deformities of trees which he ascribes to ice storms 

 of a hundred years previous. Ice storm injuries will also pave 

 the way for fungus and insect attacks, and the damage from 

 these secondary causes will in time probably equal that from the 

 original injuries. 



Lawrence College, 

 Appleton, Wis. 



THE DIRECT ASSIMILATION OF FREE NITROGEN 



BY PLANTS 



A review of recent work on the subject 

 Eva Mameli de Calvino 



In May, 1909, at the International Chemical Congress, which 

 took place in London, I presented a paper by my collaborator, 

 Prof. G. Pollacci and myself, entitled: "Sull'assimilazione dell' 

 azoto atmosferico libero nei vegetali superiori," in which we 

 gave the first results obtained from analysis of carefully pre- 

 pared cultures of various phanerogamous plants grown under 

 sterile conditions and free from combined nitrogen. From our 

 experiments we conclude that the faculty to assimilate free 

 nitrogen from the air is not, as stated in all books on vegetable 

 physiology, peculiar to some microorganisms without chlorophyll, 

 as these analyses demonstrated that there are also phanero- 

 gamous plants that can assimilate that element without being 

 in symbiosis with bacteria. 



In January of 1911, we published the complete work (i) on 

 the direct assimilation of the nitrogen in plants, having in two 

 years of research extended the experiments and analyses to other 

 plants, such as green algae, lichens, mosses, aquatic hydropter- 



*Ashe, W. W. : Note on "Ice Storms in The Southern Appalachians" by 

 Verne Rhoades. Monthly Weather Review, 46: 374. 



