115 



starch in the sun -set and in the early morning. As the leaf was not 

 made quite white and transparent by boiling and putting it in the strong 

 alcohol, as suggested by Sachs, I prefered the microscopical test to the 

 macroscopical one. Thus, the pieces of leaves taken from the plant 

 were directly put into strong alcohol and discolored. Then the moderate- 

 ly thin section of them was treated with chloralhydrate and iodine and 

 potassium iodide, and examined. In the leaves taken at 6 p.m. of the 

 hot August day, it was found that the starch in the palisade parenchyma 

 which is consisted of one layer of oblong cells, is pretty rich while the 

 spongy parenchyma, consisted of three or four layers of round cells inter- 

 rupted by the large air-cavity from the lower epidermis layer, is rich in 

 starch. In the next morning at 5.± — 6. a.m. the leaves were examined 

 as before. The cells of palisade parenchyma contained no or very few 

 statch, while the spongy parenchyma still retained a few, the starch in 

 the stomata being equally rich both in the morning and evening. 



JSo it can be .said that all quantity of starch accumulated in the leaf 

 of Nelumbo nucifcra in day-time does not translocate to the other parts 

 of the plant during night. This result agrees with that which arrived 

 at by Oosterus 1J in Java. In more than twenty plants examined by 

 him, comprising trees, shrubs, herbs belonging to several families, the 

 more or less presence of starch was proved in the majority of them in the 

 early morning. 



The transpiration of water is chiefly made from the upper surface of 

 the leaf, to which side only the stomata present in great many numbers. 

 This can be easily shown by the cobalt test proposed by Stahl. 2) The 

 reddening of the paper begins within a minute on the upper surface of 

 the leaf, while 30 minutes or more is needed for the under surface. 



Following observation on the amount of transpiration was made by 

 Mr. Kusano. He put a leaf with its stalk and rihzome in a glass cylinder 

 containing water, and after weighing it placed on the wooden stand in 

 out-doors, exposed to the sun. The other cylinder exactly alike to that 

 of the first, but containing^ the water only, was placed side by side after 

 weighing it. Two cylinders were weighed after a definite time. The 



1) Costerus, /. c. 



2) Stahl, Einige Yersuche liber Transpiration uud Assimilation. Bot. Zeit., 1894. 



