1921] TUTTLE—RESERVE FOOD i 
starch; where such movement is easy, starch disappears at the 
beginning of winter and fat is produced.”’ 
A representative number of trees, shrubs, and perennial her- 
baceous plants of the region round Edmonton were examined. 
As the number of native plants with “winter green” leaves was 
very limited, tests of the stems of the deciduous types were included 
in the observations. Sections of the leaf, stem, and bud were 
tested with iodine solution and osmic acid at intervals from October 
to June. Records extending over three seasons show very little 
variation during October. Starch was quite abundant in the 
medullary ray cells, phloem, and cortex. Oils and fats were 
present in nearly all cells of the phloem and cortex and in the 
medullary ray cells of some plants. In several cases cortical cells 
contained food reserve which did not react to either iodine or 
osmic acid, suggesting the “transitory substance”? mentioned by 
StnNoTr. Various tests were applied, but the identity of the sub- 
stance was not determined. Some of the material was tested 
microchemically for sugar by means of the Fliickiger reaction (6). 
Heavy precipitates of cuprous oxide were obtained (on heating) 
in Syringa, Populus, Prunus, Salix, Shepherdia, Ribes, Picea, 
Pinus, Rosa, Pyrola, Cornus, and Eleagnus, indicating the presence 
of glucose and dextrins. A positive determination of sugars 
could not be obtained by this means, on account of the possibility 
of the presence of a large number of other reducing substances in 
the cells; and in the absence of a satisfactory microchemical test 
for sugars. the work was not continued. Quantitative determina- 
tions of the sugar contents of a few cell saps made in another 
investigation have been recorded (2), where it was found that the 
total sugars varied from 0.5 to 2 per cent. The condition of the 
starch and oil reserve, tested at different seasons, is shown in 
table I. 
In the majority of cases starch disappeared from the local 
plants during October and early November. Oils and fats were 
abundant in all of the species examined, with the exception of 
Lonicera and Crataegus. In view of the fact that a few species 
showed a trace of starch in their tissues quite late in winter, anatomi- 
cal examinations were made and the two types described by SINNOTT 
