240 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MARCH 
The stored food in the seeds of Phacelia tanacetifolia is largely fat. HEIN- 
RICHER argues that germination is hindered by light because acid formation is 
favorable conditions for the formation and action of lipase. There seems to be 
little evidence offered for this conclusion. In fact it looks as if our knowledge of ; 
the germination processes must be greatly extended before we can announce any - 
one process that must be stimulated to induce germination. However this may _ 
be, itis certain that such conclusions, if tenable, must have far more experimental . 
evidence than HEINRICHER has offered.—WILLIAM CROCKER. : 
Suspended life.—BECQUEREL reports to the Paris Academy of Science* 
further experiments on the question of the life of seeds, whether it is slow 
or stopped. He perforated the seed coats of seeds of lucerne, white mustard, and 
wheat, dried them in a vacuum with BaOH at 40° C. for six months, sealed them 
in a glass tube exhausted to 0.002™™ mercury, and kept them for a year; they 
were then submitted to a temperature of liquid air (— 190°) for three weeks, and 
without warming up to the temperature of liquid hydrogen (— 250°) for 72 hours. 
On being kept upon moist cotton at 28° all except one grain of wheat out of five — 
‘germinated in a perfectly normal fashion. BECQUEREL finds it impossible to 
conceive of ‘‘life”” under the conditions named, and holds that life can be inter- 
rupted completely with no prejudice to its resumption.—C. R. B 
Individual variation.—An elaborate paper upon the individual differences 
in the development of growing plants, with special reference to the influence of 
external conditions, has been published by Korrpa.?8 It is too detailed for any 
intelligible summary, but its data should be considered by those who are conduct- 
ing experiments of any kind in which a limited number of plants furnish the basis 
for conclusions. It emphasizes strongly the necessity of taking account of these — ; 
individual peculiarities—C. R. B. 2 
Respiration and temperature.—Kuyper reports”? that BLACKMAN’S theory — 
of limiting factors holds good for respiration, which as a chemical process agrees 
with the Van’t Horr-ARRHENIUS law between 0° and 20-25°, but shows a falling: 
off in an almost logarithmic curve above 4o°. The “optimum” is no fixed point, : 
for the duration of respiration at any given temperature will displace it The 
course of respiration, KuyPEr finds, is also dependent on the ‘nature of the reserve - 
food BB 
a ; gee ines 
27 BECQUEREL, PAUL, Sur la suspension momentanée de la vie chez certa 
. ee Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris 148: 1052-1054. 1909. ; 
28 BA, K., Ueber die individuelle Verschiedenheit in der Entwicklung ng ini : 
MEIER Pflanzen mit besonderer Riicksicht auf die Aussenbedinguns®™ 
Jour. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo 27: art. 3. (pp. 86.) pls. 5. 1 
20 KUYPER, J., The influence of goes on the ae of the higher plants. 
Konink. Akad. Wetens. Amsterdam 12: 219-227. I 
