500 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Six of the varieties when ripe contained no starch ; the other two 

 contained small quantities of this substance. Special attention was given 

 to changes in those constituents of the Apple which are of importance in 

 the manufacture of cider. 



The following results were obtained : — 



1. In six out of the eight varieties the specific gravity of the expressed 

 juice, and the amount of acid, sugar, and total solid matter in it, decreased 

 during storage of the fruit. 



2. In the remaining two sorts there was a decrease in the acid and 

 starch-content, but a small increase was detected in the sugar-content, 

 specific gravity, and in the amount of solids present in the extracted juice. 



The author mentions and agrees with the conclusions arrived at by 

 Kulisch in 1892 (Landic. Jahrbiicher 1892). The latter found that in 

 many Apples, especially those ripening late, a larger or smaller quantity of 

 starch is present when the Apples are ready to pick. This starch is 

 changed ultimately into sugar, the rapidity of the change depending on 

 the variety and the method of storage. Thus the total amount of sugar 

 may increase after the Apples are picked, and the percentage sugar- 

 content may increase also in consequence of the concentration of sap 

 arising from the loss of water by transpiration during the period of storage. 



Kulisch, however, found that from the time when all the starch in the 

 Apple had been completely changed into sugar, the total sugar decreased 

 in consequence of the respiration process. 



The amount of acid present in the Apples also decreased both 

 absolutely and relatively until at the end of the experiments the stored 

 Apples only contained about J of the amount present in the fresh fruit 

 picked ripe from the tree. 



The increased percentage of sugar-content of a stored Apple, due to the 

 gradual concentration of its sap through loss of water by transpiration and 

 the decrease of acids in the fruit, accounts for the sweeter taste which is 

 noticeable in Apples which have been kept a time. — /. P. 



ASPALATHUS. 



Aspalathus and a few Allied Genera, Histology of the Leaf 



and Stem of. By Ludwig Levy (Marienwerder) (Beih. Bot. Cent. bd.x. 

 ht. 6). — Very little appears to have been known with regard to this par- 

 ticular group of Leguminosce, whose characteristics aVe summed up by 

 the author as follows : — They show the usual anatomical character of 

 PapilionacecB, namely, three-celled hairs, with the terminal cell longest, no 

 typical glands, and simple clots in the wood-fibres. Their chief pecu- 

 liarities are the almost centric leaf-structure, the absence of typical spongy 

 parenchyma, the stomata being surrounded by ordinary epidermis-cells, 

 the absence of organs for internal secretion, the extrusion of small, 

 prismatic, needle-shaped or octahedric crystals of calcium oxalate, no 

 external glands (except in the case of Melolohium), and isolated groups of 

 bast fibres in the pericycle of the branches. Blue corpuscles, resembUng 

 indigo in appearance, were found in the dry leaves of Melolohium, and a 

 saponin glucoside was discovered in some species of Aspalathus. The 



