NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



Inheritance of Waxy Endosperm in Hybrids with Sweet Corn. 

 ByG. N. Collins and J. H. Kempton {U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Bur. PI. 

 Ind., Circ. 120; April 1913 ; pp. 21-27). — The waxy endosperm 

 characteristic of the variety introduced from China in 1908 has never 

 been observed in any American variety. When crossed with varieties 

 that have a horny endosperm the waxy endosperm is completely 

 recessive, the immediate result of the cross being seeds that are indis- 

 tinguishable from those of horny varieties. In a general way waxy 

 endosperm behaves like sweet endosperm, which is also found to be 

 recessive to horny in the first generation, and to segregate as a mono- 

 hybrid in the following generation. This paper gives the results of 

 six crosses between varieties haying sweet and waxy endosperms. 

 In each instance the resulting ears were all horny, the endosperm in 

 every way resembling the horny endosperms of ordinary varieties. 

 Four of the six ears obtained as a result of the crosses in 191 1 were 

 selected for planting in 1912, and they produced fifty-five ears con- 

 taining 22,132 seeds, of which 57*4 per cent, were horny, 24*8 per cent, 

 sweet, and 17*8 per cent, waxy, these proportions approximating the 

 9:4:3 Mendelian ratio involving two factors. Careful scrutiny of 

 the sweet seeds failed to show any consistent differences that would 

 allow of the separation of the new type of sweet corn indicated by 

 this ratio. Experiments have been outlined for isolating and deter- 

 mining the nature of this new type. — A. P. 



Insecticide, Hot Water as an. By R. P. Brotherston {Garden, 

 March i, 1913, p. 116). — ^Water heated to 180° is recommended as 

 an application to cure red spider on vines ; it does not spoil fruit or 

 fohage ; also for washing bug-infested vines, and, with a Httle quassia, 

 peaches. 



In sponging plants with an insecticide a larger basin of water 

 should be at hand in which to rinse the sponge, so as to prevent fouling 

 the insecticide. — H. R. D. 



Iron, Sulphate of, for Chlorosis {Jour. Soc. Nat. Hort. Fr. 

 July 1913, p. 484). — ^When sulphate of iron is used as a remedy 

 for chlorosis in fruit trees, the usual practice is to make a small 

 cavity at the base of the trunk and to introduce as much 

 powdered sulphate as it will hold. This proceeding, of which 

 the efficacy is not to be denied in principle, has one drawback. 

 It does not restore the colour to all the branches when a whole tree 

 has to be treated ; indeed, the effect is often restricted to the branches 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the cavity. M. Riviere and M. 

 Bailhache, having noticed this partial failure in the course of their 

 experiments, attributed it to the precipitation of the protosulphate 

 of iron by the tannin contained in the tissues of the tree, and they there- 

 fore determined to substitute another salt of iron which was not 

 liable to such precipitation. They have accordingly carried out 

 some experiments with a solution of citro-ammoniacal pyrophosphate 

 of iron. They started with a mixture containing 50 centigrammes 



