432 Canadian Record of Science 



"In the car this morning, I met Mr. D. N. Campbell, 

 " live stock agent, who asked me if I had noticed last 

 " winter and spring whether or not the greatest mor- 

 ' ' tality among our range cattle was in the light-coloured 

 " ones. He said, George Lane, of Gordon & Ironsides' 

 " U ranch, told him that with them 90 per cent of the 

 " dead cattle from the severity of the winter were white 

 " and light roan in colour." 



Absence of pigment where pigment is usually found 

 is an evidence of lessened vitality. 



Potato shoots grown in the dark are thin, long and 

 white, easily destroyed. 



All plants grown in the dark are weakly and are 

 deprived more or less of chlorophyl. 



What are called variegated varieties in plants have 

 less vitality than normal plants. 



One variety of the Coleus is cultivated for the variety 

 of colour in its leaves, and for the white patches on 

 its leaves; a whole branch will be spotted more or less 

 with white, brown, red and green, and by making cut- 

 tings from the variegated branch, where white predomin- 

 ates, for all branches are not equally coloured, the variety 

 may be made constant and this is carried out to obtain 

 more white, till at last the leaves become almost white 

 and the stem pink, then the plant will gradually fade 

 away and die. 



It is impossible to obtain a specimen of this plant 

 just now, but a dried specimen of the Phyllanthus 

 Nivosus, a Euphorbiacious plant, shows the tendency 

 to grow white leaves is a strongly marked characteristic. 

 The leaves are alternate and at the base of the stalk are 

 green and of full size. They show their tendency to 

 become white, increasing as they get nearer the end of 

 the stalk, till they become nearly or quite white and 

 suddenly drop in size. In this specimen the leaves be- 

 come smaller as the white increases, and at last, when 

 quite white, they are much smaller and die early and 

 drop off. Here are two leaves which have dropped. In 



