Substances in the Stems of certain Deciduous Trees. 71 



the reader is referred to the original paper as it is too lengthy 

 to review properly in full in this preliminary paper 



My studies during the past year have been largely confined 

 to the question of starch formation and distribution and its 

 relation to the growth of the tree. And in this preliminary 

 communication I purpose giving some of the results so far 

 obtained that throw light upon this particular subject. 



The following list includes the names of the species which I 

 have studied : Gordonia altamaha, JEsculus flava, jEscultis 

 flava purpurascens, ^Esculus glabra, jEscuIus lyoni, Sassa- 

 fras officinale, Asimina triloba, Celtis occidentalis, Ailanthus 

 glandulosus, Syringa vulgaris, Magnolia umbrella, Mag- 

 nolia conspicua (hybrid), Acer saccharinum, Diospyros vir- 

 giniana, Euonymus atropurpureus, Crataegus tomentosa, 

 Cornus florida, Fagus ferruginea, Pyrus makes, Rhodo- 

 dendron maximum, Rhododendron punctatum^ Cladrastris 

 tinctoria, Lindera benzoin, Liriodendron tulipifera, and 

 Hamamelis virginiana. In addition to the above twenty-five 

 species a number of others have been examined from time to 

 time. 



1 have collected material* from each of the above species at 

 intervals of one or two weeks since the first of October, 1897. 

 Buds and sections of the stem were collected each time and 

 preserved in the same bottle for further study. A variety of 

 fixing reagents have been employed but none gave so good 

 results as the following two : (1) a saturated solution of picric 

 acid and corrosive sublimate in 95 per cent alcohol and (2) a 

 saturated solution of corrosive sublimate in 95 per cent alcohol. 

 In the former case washing out was accomplished with weak 

 alcohol and in the latter case the sublimate was removed with 

 water. All the material after thorough washing was placed in 

 50 per cent alcohol for preservation or imbedding. It was 

 found desirable in the study of protoplasmic connections to 

 fix the material in the osmic-acid-uranium-acetate mixture first 

 recommended by Kolossowf and employed by Gardiner;}: for 

 this purpose. 



Imbedding was accomplished either in a soap mixture or in 

 paraffine. For the details of the former method the reader is 

 referred to my recent paper§ on that subject. By the use of 

 the following paraffine method I was able to obtain perfect 

 serial sections of buds as thin as 6f or 10 mm . The buds are 

 thoroughly dehydrated in absolute alcohol and then an equal 

 volume of chloroform is added to the alcohol and the material 



* My thanks are due Mr. J. G. Jack of the Arnold Arboretum for assistance in 

 the collecting of material. 



f Zeit f. wiss. Mik., v, 50-53, 1888. 



jProc. of the Royal Society, lxii, 100-112, 1897. 



§ Journ. of Applied Mia, i, 68-69, 1898. 



