THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
23 
yi 
HOW PLANT FOOD IS FORMED 
'MERE is ])robably no phase of botany about which 
so many misconceptions exist in the popular mind 
as the formation of plant food, and the gardener, nursery- 
man and plant lover share in the general obfuscation 
writes W'illard N. Clute in Tlie American Botanist. 
Nearly everybody seems to think, he says, that plants 
get their food from the soil, entirely overlooking the fact 
that a large number of plants, such as perching plants or 
epiphytes, thrive though not rooted in the soil. As a 
matter of fact plants get their food from their leaves — 
at least that is where it is made. 
Plants differ from animals in that they form food from 
simple chemical elements, while animals are unable to do 
this and can only take the foods formed by plants and 
break them down into thvLir original elements again. 
\\'hen it comes to the use of food, however, plants are 
like animals and digest, assimilate and break it down in 
jiractically the same way. 
It is not true that plants dilTer from animals by giving 
off oxvgen in breathing while animals give off carbon- 
dioxide. In breathing, plants and animals are exactly 
alike as far as the gaseous exchange is concerned. Both 
take in oxygen and give oft' carbon-dioxide. Where 
plants reallv dift'er from animals is in possessing another 
fimction. peculiarly their own, known as photosynthesis, 
bv means of which food is formed. In this process, car- 
bon-dioxide is taken in and oxygen given off — just the 
reverse of breathing. This latter exchange rather over- 
shadows that which results from breathing and has prob- 
ablv given rise to the popular misconception regarding it. 
Plant food is formed in the leaves and other green 
parts of plants from the carbon-dioxide absorbed from 
the air in photosynthesis and soil water taken up by the 
roots. The energy necessary to combine these into food 
is secured b\' a multitude of green bodies called chloro- 
plasts in the cells. These chloroplasts stop some of the 
light rays and probably turn them into some form of elec- 
trical energy. When it is known that plants get their 
energv from sunlight, it is easy to understand why all 
green plants must have light and also why plants without 
chlorophyll, as the green coloring matter is called, can- 
not form food even in the light. 
GROWING ACALYPHAS 
/^XE of the plants that are not ordinarily grown as 
^"^ well as they ought to be and which make a beautiful 
showv plant is the acalypha, especially .\. Godseffiana and 
A. Sanderi, which bears long sjiikes of red flowers, some- 
times called the chenille plant, from the flowers which 
resemble large pieces of red chenille. The plants should 
be well hardened off in the Fall and cuttings of the new 
growth can be taken during the Winter, in November 
and Decemljer, if fine specimens are wanted. The cut- 
tings are taken preferably with a heel and root easily in 
a warm proi)agating bench. When rooted they should be 
potted in a good rich soil and placed in a warm green- 
house until they have made roots and commenced to 
grow, when they can be removed to slightly cooler quar- 
ters. The great mistake made by many growers is to 
place them in a cool house immediately after they have 
been taken from the propagating bed and they stand half 
dormant, and if too cool frequently lose much of their 
foliage, and get stunted. To have fine plants they should 
be kept moving all Winter and potted into large-sized 
pots as soon as necessary, and a few of these showy 
plants well grown will attract attention and redound to 
the credit of the grower. Aphis and mealy bug are the 
two insect enemies of these plants, and should be kept in 
check continually or the jjlants will be ruined. The bed- 
ding acalyphas should be handled in a similar manner, 
but the first of the year is early enough to start the 
cuttings of these unless there are signs of a shortage of 
stock, in which case early propagation is to be recom- 
mended, and it is seldom one has too many of these 
plants if they are well grown. — American florist. 
THE WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST. 
T 
HE white pine blister rust agitation is apparentlv 
now in its acute stage. While the injury to the 
pine tree plantations and pine forest areas from the 
"rust" has been and is likely in the future to be of ma- 
terial importance, yet, as in all such matters, the remedy 
in creating a condition of panic may occasion far more 
serious loss and prove much more costly than the disease. 
When we magnify by microscopic research any of the 
fungus or other injurious insect diseases, the ])0ssibilities 
for destruction become enlarged in geometric proportion 
until we become thoroughly alarmed, and the laboratory 
point of view soon becomes the basis of the most direful 
prediction for sensational public appeals. 
Of the hundreds of injurious insect diseases that have 
menaced as many kinds of tree and plant life, how many 
of them have not at one time or another been singled out 
for the almost complete destruction of the object of the 
attack? asked Fredk. W. Kelsey of the writer, while 
discussing the suljject with him recentlv. 
From the predicted loss of the grape vine and its de- 
struction by the Phylloxera to the possible elimination of 
the pine trees by the blister rust, these scare c\cles come 
around us regularly as the seasons. Many can remem- 
ber that the appearance of the weavel was later to pre- 
vent successful wheat growing, the boll weavel making 
impossible the continued successful growth of cotton ; 
the potato bug it was thought would soon permit the 
growth of only sweet potatoes for general consumption ; 
the elm tree beetle would ravage the elm trees to de- 
struction ; the gypsy and brown tail moths were to con- 
sume the growth of all kinds of live vegetation ; the 
aphis and fruit tree borers, with the plum curculic and 
San Jose scale were, in a short time, to eliminate success- 
ful fruit-growing all over the country, and so on to the 
end. 
In these, as in so many other instances that come to 
mind, human effort and nature's own remedial processes 
allow the great growth and production of tree and plant 
life in the aggregate to go on much the same, notwith- 
standing the local or even general losses such insect 
pests occasion. 
With this view, as the Government and State authori- 
ties are fully awake to the importance of preventing the 
spread of the jiine blister rust, it would seem as though 
there should be no stani])ede from fright for fear that 
the usual result will not obtain in the eradication or suc- 
cessful elimination of the blister rust disease. 
T 
MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
HE enrollment of students in floriculture at the winter 
short course is 21. Many of these men come to the 
college from practical work and commercial establish- 
ments. The short course is divided into two sections. 
Prof. .\. M. Nelirling is giving the work in Commercial 
Floriculture, while Mr. C. E. Wildon is handling the 
work in Garden Flowers. 
A total of 20 students are enrolled in the regular ^lajor 
Courses in Floriculture. Three courses are'to be given 
this term. Course 51 treats of Greenhouse Jilanage- 
ment; course 77 is of Decorative Plants and Conserva- 
tory \\'ork : course 80 is a continuation of the work in 
Commercial Floriculture. 
