NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



863 



vasinfecta (4 forms) and F. citlmorum were examined. Three of the 

 forms of Neocosmospora form a red acid pigment, soluble in alcohol and 

 many other media : its salts are usually violet, insoluble in the solvents 

 of the acid, but soluble in solutions of certain organic salts. Under the 

 influence of the blue rays of light these moulds produce, in presence of 

 free oxygen only, an orange-yellow substance, which is not a lipochrome. 

 The production of the red or violet pigment requires the presence of 

 oxygen, and is independent of the culture-medium, save that a colourless 

 mycelium grown on an acid substratum turns violet in a very weak 

 alkaline one, but if grown in the latter does not become coloured when 

 transferred to an acid one. The optimum temperature for growth and 

 pigmentation is identical. The colouring matter of F. culmorum has a 

 red acid form sparingly soluble in alcohol or water, and a violet alkaline 

 form soluble in dilute alcoholic or watery alkaline solutions. 



An orange pigment is in all cases developed in the Neocosmosporas 

 under the influence of blue light in presence of free oxygen. — M. H. 



Pineapple Culture. By Albert H. Benson, M.K.A.C. (Qu, Agr. 

 Journ. xiv. pt. 5, May 1904, p. 841). — This is the sixth of a series of 

 articles on the cultivation of the Pineapple, as specially adapted to 

 Queensland, and is devoted principally to the varieties generally cultivated, 

 and, more fully, to the diseases to which the plant is liable. 



Subsequently (xv. pt. 1, July 1904) is given a full account of the 

 "Pineapple Disease." — M. C. C. 



Pineapples, Cultivation Of. By Charles Eugene Smith {.)<jit,r. 

 Imp. Dep. Agr. W.I. vol. iv. No. 2, pp. 110-119). — Treats first of the 

 soil, with records of two analyses, preparation of the land, propagation, 

 planting, cultivation, gathering and packing, insects and diseases, and 

 also of the varieties, of which eighteen are enumerated ; but only a few 

 are known in general cultivation in the West Indies, and of these the 

 prominent features are given so as to facilitate selection. — M. G. 0. 



Pines, Abnormal Leaf-arrangement. By K. v. Tubeuf (Nat. 

 Zeit. Land-Forst. ii. pp. 212-216 ; 3 figs. ; 1904). —Attention is drawn 

 to a figure in Gardeners' Chronicle (Oct. 31, 1903, p. 298) showing the 

 leaves of Scots Pine in distinct whorls separated by bare lengths of twig 

 without leaves. Two similar cases have been recorded in Germany on 

 Pinus montana, and in one case a new variety, equisctiformis, was 

 created. Tubeuf, after examining specimens obtained from the observers 

 in the above cases, states that the whorls of needles occupy the apex of a 

 year's growth, while the bare twig between each whorl is due to the 

 annual production of numerous staminate flowers. The so-called variety 

 is thus not a special growth form, but simply male trees, producing each 

 year numerous staminate flowers, which soon fall off and leave only 

 whorls of needles. — W. G. S. 



Pinks, Growing 1 the Alpine. By W. Irving (Garden, No. 1705, 

 p. 55 ; 23/7/1904). — Comparatively easy to grow are the greater number of 

 the wild Pinks, requiring only a little care and attention during the early 



