THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
77 
ever, is defined as a rare term for physiology, and possibly 
a bionoinist is a still rarer form of a plant physiolog-ist. It 
is a pleasure to note that the Department of Agriculture is 
ever on the look-out for rareties. A great government like 
our own, however, cannot be too careful in the terms used 
to designate the heads of important divisions, and before 
adopting as final this new title of Bionomist, might carefully 
investigate the respective merits of Phytononist, Phytoto- 
mist, Phytopathologist and Phytophysiologist. There is no 
use in having common names for things when rare ones are 
so ornamental. 
The Effects of Cold on Plants.— It is well known 
that freezing does not kill all kinds of plants, and many 
investigators have endeavored to discover why different 
species sb.ould behave so differen/dy under the lowering of 
the temixn-ature. For a long time it was thought that dur- 
ing cold weather the ice formed in the cells of plants and 
expanding ruptured the cell-walls, thus killing the cells. 
This, according to K. ^l. Wiegand, in the February Plant 
World, is an error. Unless the temperature is lowered very 
rapidly no ice usually forms in the cells. The ice occurs 
in the intercellular spaces and lx;gins tr) form on the outside 
of the cells, drawing the water from the cells for the pur- 
p<jse. During extreme cold the water mav be nearly all 
drawn from the cells, causing tlie cell walls to collapse. 
Upon the return of milder weather the ice gradually melts 
and the cells again absorb the water. The death of the cells, 
therefore, seems to be due more t.-> the dr>-ing out of the cell 
in the process of freezing than to the mere chilling of the 
plant. Plants with cells that can endure this drv^ng urrrler 
•'r ;st are noi killed bv low temperatures. In some drv'ish 
■•Iter bu(L the temperature must fall to zero or below be- 
■ re ice crystals begin to form, but other buds may be frozen 
- lid at higher temperatures. 
