242 
K. MIYAKE. 
found in alkali soils upon the germination and growth of rice plants. 
The present investigation was undertaken at the suggestion of Prof. 
Dr. K. Oshima, to whom the author owes his acknowledgement for the 
kind interest he has taken in the work. 
In the present paper the results of experiments thus far completed are 
described. The results of other experiments now being conducted in our 
laboratory will be reported in a future paper. 
I. Influence of single Salts upon the 
Germination and Growth of Rice. 
For the experiments we selected magnesium sulphate, magnesium chloride, 
calcium chloride, sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, sodium carbonate and 
sodium bicarbonate as the salts to be examined. 
A. Experiment with Salts in pure Solutions as regards their 
Influence upon the Germination of Rice Seeds. 
On June 16th (191 1), 100 seeds of rice (Akake), which were almost 
uniform in size and specific gravity (1.185 — 1.200), were sown in glass 
dishes of about 9.5 cm. diameter and 1.7 cm. deep, each containing 30 cc. 
of 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/50, 1/100, 1/500, 1/1000 and 1/5000 normal solution 
of each salt above mentioned with distilled water as control. These dishes 
were covered with glass plates and kept in a room of ordinary temperature. 
The evaporated water was supplemented with distilled water from time to 
time to keep the solutions always in their original concentration. The 
germinated seeds were counted every day with the following results. 
