Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
January,  1896.  j 
The  Nutrition  of  Plants. 
39 
The  ashes  of  the  several  parts,  upon  qualitative  analysis,  showed 
the  same  composition  as  did  the  ashes  of  Pinus  Strobus. 
All  the  foregoing  analyses  of  both  species  were  made  of  young 
trees,  growing  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  and  collected  in  the 
month  of  November.  At  some  other  seasons  of  the  year  the  tannin 
would  probably  have  been  found  in  larger  proportion  in  the  stem  bark. 
( To  be  continued.) 
ON  THE  CONSUMPTION  OF  ASPARAGINE  IN  THE— 
NUTRITION  OF  PLANTS.1 
By  Y.  KinoshiTa,  Nogakushi. 
The  fact  that  asparagine  is  formed  whenever  proteids  undergo 
decomposition  in  plants  has  been  repeatedly  made  the  subject  of 
close  investigation  by  various  authors,  but  much  less  attention  has 
been  hitherto  paid  to  the  reverse  process — the  regeneration  of  pro- 
teids from  asparagine.  C.  O.  Muller2  has  asserted  that  this  regener- 
ation can  only  take  place  during  the  process  of  assimilation  in  green 
leaves,  and  that  the  action  of  light  and  the  status  nascens  of  carbo- 
hydrates are  essential.  As  this  statement  did  not  appear  to  me 
well  founded,  quantitative  investigations  being  wanting,  I  undertook 
a  series  of  experiments  in  order  to  see  whether  this  process  might 
not  proceed  in  the  dark. 
If  we  look  upon  the  growing  root  from  the  physiological  point 
of  view,  we  must  hold  it  highly  probable  that  the  cells  of  the  root, 
although  always  deprived  of  light,  are  capable  of  forming  the  proT 
teids  necessary  for  its  growth  and  development  from  suitable  sources, 
such  as  sugar,  nitrates  and  sulphates,  or  sugar,  asparagine  and  sul- 
phates. It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  mould  fungi  can  form  their 
proteids  in  this  way  in  complete  darkness,  and  that  certain  fungi, 
especially  bacteria,  grow  even  much  better  in  the  dark  than  in  day- 
light ;  it  may,  therefore,  be  surmised  that  the  formation  of  proteids 
and  protoplasm  may  also  proceed  better  in  darkness. 
The  relative  amount  of  glucose,  or  other  suitable  material,  seemed 
to  me  the  most  decisive  factor  in  the  transformation  of  asparagine 
into  proteids.    I  therefore  selected  shoots  of  soya-beans,  which  are 
1  From  Bulletin,  Vol.  II,  No.  4,  Imperial  University,  College  of  Agriculture, 
Tokio,  Japan. 
2  Bin  Beitrag  zur  Kenntniss  d.  Eiweissbildung  in  der  Pflanze.  L,andw.,  Ver» 
suchst.,  Bd.  33,  p.  11. 
