482 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Boots, Preserving the Soles of [Qu. Agr. Jour. March 1916, p. 174). — . 
In view of the increasing cost of hides, leather, and consequently of foot-wear, a 
correspondent points out that shoe leather can be made to last for twice the 
ordinary time by simply rubbing Stockholm tar into the wearing surface with 
the fingers. Use as much tar as the leather will take up ; allow it to dry ; then 
repeat the operation. Two coats will be sufficient. — C. H. H. 
Brachystelma dianthum (Bot. Mag. t. 8670). — South Africa. Nat. Ord. 
Asclepiadaceae, tribe Ceropegieae. Herb; tuber flat, 2 inches across. Stem 
erect, 2 inches long. Leaves lanceolate, 2 inches long. Flowers solitary. 
Corolla ovoid-campanulate, 1 inch long, greenish-yellow with purple spots. — G. H. 
Brown-rot Fungus in N. Vermont. By H. E. Bartram [Phytopathology, vi. 
p. 71, Feb. 1916). — The common cause of brown-rot of stone fruit in Vermont 
is Sclerotinia cinerea, as it is in Europe. The conidia in many cases remain alive 
on mummified fruits over winter, and with those produced in spring from the 
dormant mycelium in the mummified fruits may produce early spring infections. 
All such mummified fruits should therefore be collected and burned. — F. J . C. 
Cabbage " Yellows,'* The Control of, through Disease Resistance. By L. R. Jones 
and J. C. Gilman (U.S.A. Agr. Exp. Stn., Wisconsin, Res. Bull. 38, Dec. 1915, 
pp. 1-70; 23 figs.). — Cabbage-growing is extensively practised in various parts 
of Wisconsin, and a large industry has become established. The variety grown 
is a winter one known as ' Hollander ' or ' Danish Ball Head,' and it is frequently 
attacked by a parasitic soil fungus, Fusarium conglutinans , which, invading 
the roots and the stems, causes extensive " yellowing " of the leaves. This 
ultimately causes the death of the plants, and on badly infected soil the loss 
may be from 50 to 95 per cent, of the total crop. 
Various methods of treatment of seed, seedlings, and soil, including disin- 
fectants and fertilizers, were without any practical result. The only method 
of control seemed to lie in the possibility of securing disease-resisting varieties 
or strains. By repeated selection, strains of the 'Hollander' type have been 
obtained, which have proved disease-resistant against the Fusarium and at the 
same time of excellent commercial qualities. Seeds from this resistant strain 
have been obtained from 2,000 heads in 191 5, and will be distributed for plant- 
ing in 1916 under the name ' Wisconsin Hollander No. 8.' — A. B. 
Campanula Zoysii (Bot. Mag. t. 8666). — North Italy and Austria. Nat. Ord. 
Campanulaceae, tribe Campanuleae. Herb, 4 inches high. Leaves radical, 
I inch long, margin ciliate. Racemes terminal, 3-4 flowered. Corolla oblong- 
tubular, light purple, 1 inch long. — G. H. 
Carbohydrates in Plants, Studies of the Formation and Translocation of. 
I. The Carbohydrates of the Mangold Leaf. By William A. Davis, Arthur 
John Daish, and George Conworth Sawyer (Jour. Agr. Sci. vol. vii. pt. hi. 
pp. 255-326, Feb. 1916 ; figs.). — The object of the investigation was to throw 
light on the fundamental problems of the formation of carbohydrates in the 
leaves, their translocation to the storage reservoirs, and the way in which they 
are broken down for utilization in subsequent growth. Down to the year 1893 
the generally held view was that put forward in 1862 by Sachs and modified 
in 1885 by the work of Schimper, according to which formaldehyde is first formed 
in the leaf by the reduction of C0 2 under the influence of light and chlorophyll, 
this being then polymerized to glucose, which on reaching a certain concentration 
undergoes conversion into starch. The work of Brown and Morris in 1893 on 
the Tropaeolum leaf went to show that all the carbohydrate formed in the leaf 
did not pass through the starch stage, and that cane sugar with its hydrolytic 
products dextrose and laevulose were present in the leaf in considerable quantities. 
They also showed that leaf diastase acts on starch, giving rise to maltose. Since 
1893 the two main views have been (1) that saccharose is the first sugar formed 
in photosynthesis, and (2) that the primary products are hexoses, from which 
saccharose is afterwards formed either in the leaf or the root. 
The earlier work on the problem was largely qualitative. This and later 
quantitative work was vitiated by failure to ensure the destruction of enzymes 
which may break up the saccharose in the expressed juice of the leaf tissue. 
The present authors avoid this source of error by dropping the fresh leaf material 
(1 kilogram) in small quantities into boiling alcohol (2 litres) which contains a 
little ammonia to neutralize the acids of the plant tissue. The enzymes are 
at once destroyed by this method. Certain errors in the quantitative estimation 
