72 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tween 'ammonium sulphate and sodium 
nitrate and indicates that it may, under 
certain conditions, be physiologically acid. 
It was shown to increase the assimilability 
of the phosphoric acid of insoluble phos¬ 
phates even in sterile cultures where nitri¬ 
fication did not occur. 
O. Schreiner and H. S. Reed (E. S. R. 
XIX, No. 9,822) show evidence that 
roots possess well defined oxidizing pow¬ 
ers due principally to enzymes. Certain 
substances used as fertilizers promote the 
activity of roots, and root oxidation is 
more active in fertile than unproductive 
soils. 
O. Schreiner and M. X. Sullivan (E. 
S. R., same page) found that “water in 
which seed has germinated and seedlings 
had grown apparently contained toxic 
properties which interfered with the 
growth of a second crop in the same solu¬ 
tion. F. Fletcher (same page, E. S. R.) 
made investigations showing the excre¬ 
tions of toxic substances of an alkaloidal 
nature by plant roots. Phosphoric acid 
when assimilated by plants is mainly in 
the form of di-hydrogen phosphate incor¬ 
porated in the protoplasm of the living 
plant cells. I have often called attention 
to the fact of a suspicion that 
iron solutions from iron impregnat¬ 
ed soils which the plants must 
transpire in making growths evidently 
have a depressing effect on the plant 
protoplasm equivalent to phosphate rever¬ 
sion thereby deranging the enzymes that 
make growth and delaying or even stop¬ 
ping the maturing of the plants. 
Most organic poisons are classed as al¬ 
kaloids and generally speaking alkaloids 
are albumens or proteids split up into low¬ 
er molecular forms and given stability by 
association with alkaline salts. 
The most familiar alkaloids are those 
used in medicine—quinine, morphine, 
strychnine, atropine, etc., which are de¬ 
posited as useless or waste nitrogenous 
substances in the bark or tissue of certain 
plants. 
In most plants after the protoplasm cells 
are exhausted from excreting enzymes 
the broken down or split up remains dis¬ 
appear probably as root excretions. The 
process is shown in a study of maize and 
dates by H. S. Reed (E. S. R. XVI, No. 
5,443,05.) “It was found that in the rest¬ 
ing condition the secreting cells of both 
maize and dates are crowded with rela¬ 
tively small proteid granules, as secretion 
begins these granules gradually disap¬ 
pear. In maize the disappearance coin¬ 
cides closely with the consumption of the 
endosperm. In the date however, the gran¬ 
ules disappear long before the endosperm 
is dissolved. 
The chromatin of the nuclei is small 
in amount at the beginning of secretion 
and increases as germination progresses. 
The nucleolus diminishes with the pro¬ 
gressing of germination. These changes 
are more noticeable in the case of maize 
than in the date. There is no evidence that 
solid matter is excreted from the nucleus. 
At the end of secretory activity the proto¬ 
plasm of the secreting cells breaks down 
and the products of disintegration disap¬ 
pear from sight.” L. Lutz (E. S. R. 
XVII, No. 2,348, Dec. ’05,) believes it is 
practically demonstrated that many or¬ 
ganic nitrogenous substances are directly 
assimilated by plants, and the common be¬ 
lief that ammoniacal fermentation takes 
place first followed by nitric fermentation 
