NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



125 



in the Near East, and a few of them (besides graecus) extend into the 

 Balkans. 



About the first century of our era the Romans obtained this vegetable 

 from Greece, but even in the Middle Ages its cultivation had been 

 abandoned, though a tradition of it still existed. The form cultivated 

 in the Netherlands (which escaped the thorough destruction of the lands 

 of the Allemanni during the barbarian invasions) is not Bumex graecus 

 but B. patientia, which may be a hybrid between the former and some 

 wild species (perhaps B. crispus). This is very like the older cultivated 

 plant, but better suited to a European climate. In the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century the Franciscan monks used the roots of B. patientia 

 instead of rhubarb, and cultivated it in the monastery gardens. So it 

 came into gardens and into botanical hands. It was soon found to be 

 unsuited for medicinal purposes. B. alpinus was used by the apothecaries 

 for a longer period. In England it has either remained over from ancient 

 times or been introduced. It has been eaten as a spinach since the 

 seventeenth century, and has been distributed to many countries. 



G. F. S.-E. 



Mutants. By Dr. Karl Domin (Beih. Bot. Centralbl. xxiii. 2 te Abth., 

 Heft 1, pp. 15-25). — Describes Potentilla verna L. mutant monophylla, 

 Primula officinalis (L.) Hill mutant horticola, and Picea Omorilla (Pane.) 

 Willk. var. Fassei Midloch. 



The leaf of the above Potentilla has but one leaflet, but it scarcely 

 differs in other respects from P. verna. The author considers it to be an 

 atavistic form resembling the original ancestor of P. verna. — G. F. S.-E. 



Nigella integrifolia (Bot. Mag. tab. 8245). — Nat. ord. Banuncula- 

 ceae ; tribe Helleboreae ; Turkestan. Herb annual, 1 foot high ; leaves 

 3-9 palmatipartite, lobes 1J-2 inches long ; flowers blue, 1 inch diameter. 



G.H. 



Nitro-bacterine, an Experiment with. By C. T. Gimingham, 

 A.I.C. — The following experiment with nitro-bacterine was carried out 

 at Wye College in 1908. 



The crops chosen were three varieties of ordinary garden peas and one 

 of broad beans. The object of the experiment was to discover whether 

 the use of the inocculating material under ordinary conditions of culture 

 resulted in an increased yield of marketable produce. The experiment 

 was carried out on two types of soil : — 



(1) A soil which had been previously well-trenched and manured, and 

 was prepared and intended for vegetable culture. 



(2) A very poor thin soil, just overlying the chalk and very deficient in 

 organic matter. This was dug over just before sowing. 



In the case of soil (1) it was hardly to be expected that much good 

 would result from inoculation unless the bacteria introduced should prove 

 of much greater virulence than those already present in the soil ; for in 

 this case there was a fair amount of nitrogen present in the soil, and, 

 moreover, peas had recently been grown there with success. 



Soil (2), however, seemed to be just the type of soil on which 

 inoculation should prove of value. No leguminous crop had been grown 



