Notes on the Metabolism in the Cherry Tree. 



BY 



S. Aoyama, Nogakushi. 



Numerous investigations of Sachs, Nobbe and others have 

 shown that the bark and wood of trees store up during the autumn 

 a considerable amount of reserve-material which is transported 

 there from the leaves and partially prepared in the living bark 

 itself. This material not only serves for the nutrition of the cam- 

 bium but also is partially transported to the buds of the leaves and 

 flowers during their development in spring. Robert Hartig has 

 found that in the wood of the trunk of the red beech and oak, 

 starch is deposited to a considerable extent. With old trees of red 

 beech the fifty exterior annual rings contain reserve-starch which 

 is used up in those years in which seeds are produced. In other 

 years, however, only the last two rings show in summer a decrease 

 in starch, while in October starch is again deposited in them. 



This author therefore infers that for the nutrition of the leaf- 

 buds in spring the reserve-material from the brandies is mainly 

 used. Rudolph Weber has especially examined the rate of de- 

 crease in proteid and mineral matter in the old and young parts 

 of the trunk of the beech tree during a year of seed production, 

 and has found that a large amount of nitrogenous matter and 

 magnesium salts migrate from the wood to the growing seeds. 0 ' 



Russow and A. Fisclier found that conifers store up the re- 

 serve-material free from nitrogen principally in the form of fat, 

 while many other trees, especially hard wood trees, store it up in 

 the form of starch. The amount of reserve-material, further, will 

 probably vary under different conditions, especially in different 

 climates. 



It is an interesting fact that in the central and southern parts 

 of Japan the cherry trees generally bear no fruit (2) and in certain 

 cases in which the development of fruit takes place the fleshy 

 part remains imperfectly developed. On the other hand these 

 trees show in spring a most luxuriant development of flowers, 



(1) Dr. v. Tvlnufs Forstlich-naturwissenschaftliche Zeischrift, vol I. (1892). 



(2) Only one variety forms an exception. 



