On the Quantities of Nitrates Stored up in Plants 
under Different Conditions. 
BY 
T. Ishizuka, Nög ah ushi 
The amount of nitrates stored up in plants varies not only in 
different parts of the same plants, but it is subjected to great varia¬ 
tion in the entire plants, which depends on the one hand upon the 
relative amount of nitrates present in a soil and on the other upon 
the state of development of plants, as, e.g., by rapid development 
of plants all the nitrates, otherwise deposited in stem and root, 
would be utilized for the formation of proteid. 
I suspected, however, that, by gradual reduction, the amount 
of nitrates would also decrease on keeping objects , especially 
roots, for several months in: a cool place . 
A series of qualitative tests with diphenylamine and sulphuric 
acid was first made to*acsertain which objects are rich in nitrates; 
this reaction failed, however, with the roots of Batatas edulls, 
Nelumbo nucifera, Lilium tigrinum, Solanum tuberosum, Helian¬ 
thus tub er o sus , Capsicum longum, Eutrema Wasabi, Colocasia 
antiquorum, and with the fruit of Cucurbita Pepo. The quanti¬ 
tative determinations of nitrates were always made with fresh 
objects, which were cut into small pieces and extracted with 
water on a water-bath for half an hour ; the residue obtained 
by the evaporation of the filtrate was then extracted with alcohol 
of 60 % ; this extract after evaporation to dryness served for 
the determination of nitrates by the method of Tieman and 
Schulze . (1) 
The results are shown in the following table A. 
(i) In some of the objects the qualitative test already revealed a decrease of nitrates 
and in some cases an entire disappearance after several months, as in a variety of Allium 
fistulosum. On the other hand no decrease was observed with the root of Lappa major , 
kept from 9th October to 4th Nov., but here the examination showed at once that the 
cells of the roots had died oft. 
