404 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. IX, No. 2, 
THE EFFECT OF ALKALOIDS ON REGENERATION IN THE 
SCARLET RUNNER BEAN. 
Sergius Morgulis. 
The difference in the rates of growth is undoubtedly one of 
the most important problems in the study of regeneration at the 
present time. The problem is now being attacked by a number 
of zoologists, who study this question from the point of view of 
the relation of the rate of regeneration to either the degree of 
injury, or the frequency of injury, or the levels at which the 
organism is injured. 
Although zoologists agree as to what phenomena are to be 
described under the head of “regeneration,” there is still no 
concensus of opinion with regard to plants; and while Pfeffer (6), 
for instance, would limit the term regeneration to those cases 
only “in which an organ replaces a portion of itself which has 
been removed” (p. 167), Goebel (2) and others contend that 
phenomena of regeneration imply also a development of dormant 
or latent buds present before injury. 
McCallum (4) finds that of all the plants under his observation 
there were scarcely any “in which these primordia developed 
without the removal of the shoot, and in every case in which the 
stem was cut off they developed.” 
In an investigation, (now in progress), upon the regeneration 
of animals, the attempt was made by the writer to study the 
problem from a new standpoint, that of the modifiability of the 
rate of regeneration under changed external conditions, with the 
hope of throwing some additional light upon this somewhat per¬ 
plexing problem. It seemed desirable, in connection with these 
experiments upon animals, to test the method also on regen¬ 
erating plants, especially since the subject of the rate of regen¬ 
eration, so far as the writer’s knowledge goes, does not seem to 
have been touched upon by botanists. It was important for the 
purpose in hand to obtain a plant in which the regenerative 
processes had already been investigated and which at the same 
time would be available for further experimentation. Such an 
object was found in the scarlet runner bean, a variety of Phase- 
olus multiflorus, on which McCallum (4) has done much valuable 
research, and ascertained many points of importance. 
Omitting details, the method followed was briefly this: 
Seeds of the scarlet runner bean were germinated in sawdust 
until they had reached a height of 0 cm. The seedlings were 
then transferred to pint mason jars. Each jar was completely 
covered with black paper in order to protect the growing roots 
Contribution from the Rot. Lab. of Ohio State University. XXXYIII. 
