343] B. EH. Invingston 145 
to the editing of plant physiological papers prepared by work- 
ers in other institutions, especially for Physiological Re- 
searches, a series of publications with which the University 
has no official connection and for which it furnishes no finan- 
cial assistance. An English translation of Palladin’s Plant 
Physiology, with editorial additions, is about to be pub- 
lished from this department. It has been prepared from the 
German translation of the Sixth Russian edition, with incor- 
poration of the main alterations occurring in the Seventh 
Russian edition. 
Contributions to the Science, and Researches Now in Prog- 
ress.—To give a clear idea of the nature of the investigations 
ettempted in this department, it is desirable to present a 
brief discussion of the general field in which these investiga- 
tions lie. The science of plant physiology deals with the pro- 
cesses or changes that go on in living plants. Now, to un- 
derstand a change as fully as possible it is required to know 
the change first in a roughly descriptive sort of way, after 
which our knowledge is to be advanced by consideration of the 
dynamic and causal aspects of the process considered. De- 
scriptive physiology involves statements of the various sorts 
of processes going on in the organism, and it should show in 
what regions of the body these changes occur, and when they 
occur. Thus, that ordinary green leaves take up the element 
carbon out of the air during periods of sunlight is a state- 
ment of descriptive physiology, in this sense. To inquire 
more deeply concerning this process of carbon-intake clearly 
leads to quantitive studies of the various rates at which this 
intake may go on, which may be correlated with the various 
concomitant conditions of the plant and of its surroundings. 
Such studies soon reveal the fact that the rate of carbon- 
absorption is determined by a host of conditions, each one of 
which requires to be measured with regard to its intensity, 
and it is found that the rate in question may assume different 
magnitudes as the conditional intensities vary. It is true 
that the process of carbon-entrance from the air usually 
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