162 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
metabolism. The magnitude of the plastic equivalent is to a high degree 
dependent on the nature of the carbon nutrient. This relation is correlated 
with the heats of combustion of the carbon compounds. Those having the 
greater caloric value give the highest plastic ratios —H. HASSELBRING. 
Bud variations and fruit markings.—This very interesting question is the 
subject of a paper by Kraus, who has been making studies on the effects of 
cross-pollination of cultivated fruits. The author calls attention to the fre- 
quent occurrence of banded or striped fruits, especially among apples. The 
most common explanation of this phenomenon is the secondary influence of 
pollen, but the author explains that this cannot be true xenia, such as occurs in 
corn. Correspondence with horticulturists and botanists indicated a prevail- 
ing opinion that it is due to secondary influence of pollen, though a number 
believed it due to bud-variation. After explaining the economic importance of 
the problem, the author describes his methods of work. The conclusions are as 
follows: ‘color in the pome fruits is not influenced directly in the immediate 
cross; new characters cannot be added by the pollen, outside the seed itself, 
in the immediate cross; the manifestation of color is dependent on many 
environmental factors; color as usually found is composed of a number of unit 
characters; somatic segregation may occur and by this means the several 
factors of color manifest themselves more or less independently (the several 
colors may appear as bands more or less parallel, or a band of but one color 
surrounded by the normal color); similar segregation may extend to any group 
of unit characters of which the plant is composed; segregation may extend to 
either fruit or leaf buds; if the latter, such variations may be propagated 
asexually; red in apples may consist of either a single or a complex of unit 
characters; at least, three reds are recognizable; somatic segregation may be of 
service to plant breeders as indicating the unit characters of a plant that are 
likely to exhibit themselves when propagated sexually; segregation generally 
extends to the flower bud only in apples, while in pears the shoot is frequently 
affected.” —Met T. Cook. 
The development of chalazogams.—NAwASscHIN and Finn‘ have pub- 
lished a contribution in German which extends the study of Juglans published 
in Russian a year ago and already noted in this journal.7 The principal 
conclusions’are: that in seed plants there is a tendency to reduce the male 
gametes from sperms to naked nuclei; that the evolution of the pollen tube and 
simplification of the sperm go hand in hand; that Juglans and other chalazoga- 
mous plants with a well developed binucleate cell which reaches the embry? 
5 Kraus, E. J., Bud variations in relation to fruit markings. Biennial Crop Pest 
and Horticultural Report for r911 and 1912. Oregon Agric. Exp. Station. pPp- 73-78- 
6 Nawascauy, S., and Fryv, V., Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Chalazogamen- 
Juglans regia und Juglans nigra. Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg 311-59 
pls. I-4. 1913. 
7 Bot. Gaz. 55:94. 1913. 
