1886. ] Botany. 165 
A friend has just sent me 160 named lots of cultivated beans. 
How are they usually described? Mainly by the time of fruiting, 
size and color of pod and the peculiarities of the seeds. 
e are living in a time when there is much said about the 
difficulty of describing so many varieties of cultivated plants, It 
seems to me the correct solution of this problem is here sug- 
gested: Instead of describing lettuce and turnips and onions by 
the shape of leaf and head, color and shape of root, or the color 
and shape of bulb respectively, let the inflorescence and flowers 
be carefully examined and a clear record made of a// the charac- 
ters which prove to be most reliable. The time has come for 
more careful work in this direction. The skill of a good botanist 
should be joined to that of a good horticulturist.— W. F. Beal, 
Agricultural College, Mich. 
FORMATION OF STARCH IN THE LEAVES OF THE VinE.—Sig. 
Cuboni has made a series of observations (Rivista di Viticoltura 
ed Enologia Italiana, 1885) on the formation of starch in leaves 
of the vine. In March and April, when the leaves are first formed, 
amonth old. It depends, however, to a certain extent on the 
maturity of the chlorophyll-grains. 
In a leaf containing no starch at the outset, abundance was 
found after an hour’s exposure to the direct action of the sun- 
light ; and the maximum quantity was obtained by two hours’ 
Although the youngest leaves are unable to form starch, the 
maximum development is not obtained by the lowest leaves on a 
branch, but by those on the middlemost nodes; on a branch con- 
taining sixteen leaves, by those from the seventh to the eleventh, . 
the lowest showing less than half the maximum power of pro- 
duction. 
If an annular incision is made above and below a leaf, sepa- 
rating the elements of the soft bast, the starch in the leaf is not 
and transformed in the dark ; but if a similar incision is 
made only below, or only above the leaf, the ordinary process is 
not disturbed ;. and this is also the case if a leaf separated by an 
incision on both sides has a panicle of fruit or flowers opposite it 
on the same node. No starch is formed if the leaves are etio- 
-a or attacked by Peronospora viticola.— Four. Royal Mic. 
Society, 
VOL, XX.—NO. 11, co 12 
