1895.] Vegetable Physiology. 671 
oblanceolate, very variable, slightly acute to obtuse, less hirsute on the 
upper surface; stipules ovate, acuminate, scarious-margined, inclined 
to be scarious with green veins; flowers like Jotiflorus, very small, 
yellowish-white to pale lilac, one to three in a raceme almost sessile in 
the axils of leaves, peduncle lengthening to half an inch in fruit; not 
like /otiflorus in equalling the leaves; calyx with lanceolate, acumi- 
nate teeth, persistent; legume right-angled from the peduncle, half- 
ovate or slightly crescent-shaped, acuminate 1 inch long, 4 lines. deep, 
sessile tin the calyx, thick chartaceous, one-celled, sometimes cross- 
wrinkled ; seeds in two rows, short-kidney-shaped, numerous. 
Specimens have been deposited in the herbaria of the Botanical Sur- 
vey of Nebraska, University of Minnesota, and Columbia College. 
—J. M. Bares. 
Long Pine, Neb., May 20, 1895. 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.’ 
The Action of light on Bacteria.—Under the above title Dr. 
H. Marshall Ward contributes an interesting article to the Philosoph- 
ical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 185 (1894), 
pp. 961-986. While his experiments have not been confined to the 
anthrax bacillus, most of those here detailed were made with this or- 
ganism. The spores were sown in melted agar which was then poured 
into Petri dishes in the usual way. Portions of these agar films were 
then exposed to direct sunlight and to the are light. On the shaded 
parts of the agar the colonies derived from these spores grew until they 
completely covered it, while they wholly failed to develop at first, but 
finally did so in small numbers on the parts exposed to direct sunlight 
for several hours. After exposure the cultures were placed in an in- 
cubator at 20-22° C., only being taken out to examine and photo- 
graph. By 3—4 hours exposure to direct bright sunlight and subse- 
quent incubation for a few days, figures and stenciled letters were 
brought out very distinctly on the surface of the inoculated plates. 
That. this effect is dueto insolation has been’shown by various writers 
and is now generally accepted, and that the effect is due to the direct 
'This department is edited by Erwin F. Smith, Department of AEAT, 
Washington, D. C. 
