Feb. 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
659 
were unable to adopt this contention, and disniissed 
th- information. Wr. Clark applied for coats on 
behalf of the Bombay Tea Company, Lnrgley. he 
said, was a purely nominal prosecutor. Mr. Ward 
on the other side, had practically admitted that the 
prosecution was by a rival firm. The Bench granted 
three guineas costs and agreed to state a case. — E. & C. 
Mail, Jan. 19. 
SCIENCE AND SOIL CULTIVATION. 
THE DIRECT ASSIMILATION OF CARBO- 
HYDRATES BY PLANTS. 
Up to within very recenc times a firm line 
©{demarcation in the vegetable Kingdom has been 
drav/n between the higher or green plants which 
contain chlorophyll, and the lower or non-ehloro- 
phyll containing plants. By means of their chlo- 
ropliyll apparatus, the higlier plants ab.sorb from 
the sun's rays energy which enables them to 
decompose water and the carbon dioxide of the 
atmosphere into their elements, from which a 
fairly simple chemical substance is tirstconstructed; 
and then, by a progressive series of reactions, 
the highly elaborate and complex materials, 
such as starch, gums, oils, tannins and various 
sugars, which are easily identified as plant-con- 
stituents. The first product is usually held to be 
formic aldehyde, though it has not yet been iden- 
tifif^d in the plant itself as such. Many of the 
complex substances, however, have been artifi- 
cially prepared from formic-aldehyde by the skill 
of the chemist in his laboratory, so that the 
indirect evidence is fairly conclusive, and the 
theory will probably be held good until actually 
disproved. The lower plants, however, being 
without chlorophyll, are obliged to make use of 
complex substances already elaborated. The fungi, 
for example, possess a destructive energy which 
enables them to break down for their own use, 
such substances as sugar, bread, wood, leather 
and other organic materials upon which they are 
commonly found growing. These are thorouiihly 
established views. Thus in a recent resume of 
the subject of plant assimilation entitled, "The 
origin and formation of organic matter in plants," 
which was republished in the Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society as late as June last, a caretul 
and detailed account of this mode of carbon 
assimilation is set forth. Moreover, it is the only 
method which the writer considers it necessary 
to refer to, although he deals very fully with the 
latest work that has been done on the allied sub- 
ject of the fixation and assimilation of atmos- 
pheric nitrogen by certain families of green plants. 
Evidence is now gradually accumulating, how- 
ever, that this is by no means the whole truth 
on the subject of caibon assimilation. Since the 
year 1886,* when the work of Hellriegel and Will- 
farth and others demonstrated the extremely im- 
portant part played by micro-organisms in the 
nietaholism of leguminous plants, lines of inves- 
tigation have been opened up that have slied mnch 
light on the formation of carbonaceous c(mipounds. 
The final result towards which these experiments 
point is the possibility of green plants being 
able to assimilate, directly through their roots 
food materials that already contain complex 
carbon-compounds. It is only possible here to in- 
dicate the links in the chain of argument. 
Winogradsky noticed that a certain lower plant, 
Clostridium Pasteurianum, was aide to fix nitro- 
gen in direct proportion to the amount of sugar 
upplied to it in the nutrient media. This was 
also found to be partly true of some common 
moulds, such as Aspergillus niger and PenicilHum 
Glaucu7n, Maze found that nucio-organisins from 
a leguminous root-nodule, grown on nutritive ma- 
terial prepared from an infusion of haricot bean, 
are able to fix nitrogen when 2 per cent of sugar 
is added. Bouilhac has found that Nostoc, a green 
alga, in the presence of soil bacteria, fixes nitro- 
gen in the absence of organic matter ; it is true, 
but the yield is increased f.nir-fold when a dilute 
solution of glucose is supplied, and under these 
conditions tlie organism can even grow in the 
dark, and form chlorophyll. Up to this point 
it would seem that the fixation of nitrogen is 
clearly connected with the presence of a carbo- 
hydrate, either specially added or present in 
the tissues of an associated plant, or else, to remove 
the cause a step further, with the presence of 
organisms capable of manufacturing suitable carbo- 
hydrates. Acting on the suggestion that the 
vigorous assimilation of nitrogen by the bacteria 
of leguminous l oot-nodules, may be due to the 
carbohydrates present in the legume itself, Gold- 
ing has carried out pot-experiments on the effect 
of supplying glucose to bean, lucerne, and clover 
plants, and finds that a marked increase iu growth 
is produced thereby. Further, Laurent has 
shown that seedling plants, such as maize, can 
grow, increase in weight, and form starch in the 
sterile sohnions and in the absence of carbonic 
anhydride when glucose is supplied to their roots. 
Finally, Maze again working with sterile water 
cultures, shows that vetches can be grown in the 
dark, at the expense only of glucose supplied to 
their roots. It is true that the green plants em- 
ployed in these experiments belong to botanica' 
orders that most clearly exhibit the phenomenon 
of nitrogen fixation through the agency of asso- 
ciated bacteria. Whether plants not distinguished 
bj this property can be made to assimilate car- 
bohydrates directly is the subject of further ex- 
periments at the present time. Should this prove 
possible, then a practical issue, quite apart from 
the extreme theoretical value of the result, may 
be foreseen. Sugar and other cai bohydrates, 
though prohibited by their cost for manurial pur- 
poses on an agricultural scale, miuht be valu- 
able agents for a special purpose, such as, for 
instance, the production of fruit, flowers and 
vegetables under glass and with a minitnum of 
sunlight, at periods when they are usually obtained 
only with extreme difficulty. 
There is also evidence in another direction that 
the chlorophyll theory does not explain all the 
facts of carbon assimilation and plant-energy. Thus, 
Green has published experiments from which he 
draws the conclusion that there exists in plants 
a power of absorbing and utilizing the radiant 
energy of light, sometimes to a considerable extent 
without the presence of a chlorophyll appara* 
tus. — Imperial Institute Journal. 
Plumbago Leases.— The new system of 
leasing Crown lands with plumbago seems 
to be working well so far as the natives are 
concerned. They are keen to compete for 
such land ; and at public auction, the lease 
for ten years of land holding plumbago 
is often sold now-a-d;tys as high as .Rl,000 
per acre per annum I The purchaser has at 
once to deposit the first year's rent ; but 
there is this proviso in his favour : that he 
tnay throw up the lease at any time, pro- 
vided he h»9 paid that particular year's rent. 
