Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ") 
July,  1913.  J 
Breeding  Medicinal  Plants. 
293 
being  used  in  the  above  mentioned  experiments.  Chemical  and 
biological  methods  are  being  used  in  checking  and  following  the 
progress  of  the  work.  It  is  hoped  that  correlations  may  be  found 
to  exist  between  high  potency  and  certain  morphological  char- 
acters. This  would  eliminate  in  part  at  least  the  chemical  and 
physiological  assays,  which  are  expensive,  and  somewhat  long. 
Following  is  a  brief  discussion  of  what  is  being  done  with  some 
of  the  forms  under  investigation. 
BELLADONNA. 
Both  the  leaves  and  roots  of  belladonna  (Atropa  belladonna) 
are  used.  They  must  yield  respectively  0.30  per  cent,  and  0.45 
per  cent,  of  alkaloids.  During  the  past  three  years,  6  per  cent, 
of  all  shipments  of  the  leaf  examined  were  below  standard.  The 
variation  in  percentage  of  alkaloids  for  the  same  period  of  time 
was  from  0.23  to  0.62  per  cent.,  average  0.43  per  cent.  Of  the 
shipments  of  root  examined,  28  per  cent,  were  below  standard, 
with  a  variation  of  from  0.17  to  0.66  per  cent.,  average  0.48  per  cent. 
No  attempts  have  been  made  to  breed  belladonna  for  a  high  yield 
of  alkaloids,  a  possibility  which  is  suggested  by  the  range  of 
variations  as  indicated  above.  That  the  belladonna  plant  does 
possess  a  higher  yielding  power  than  average  figures  would  sug- 
gest, is  shown  by  a  yield  of  0.9  per  cent,  of  alkaloids  which  was 
obtained  upon  a  plot  fertilized  with  commercial  acid  phosphate. 
Such  a  high  yielding  power  as  this  would  of  course  not  be  trans- 
mitted by  these  plants  to  their  offsprings.  It  is  only  mentioned  to 
indicate  the  possibilities  of  locating  high  yielding  plants  by  testing 
leaves  from  selected  individuals. 
During  the  past  summer  a  number  of  such  selections  were 
made.  Individual  plants  were  selected,  numbered  and  inbred. 
Samples  of  leaves  were  taken  from  these  individuals  upon  which 
to  determine  the  alkaloidal  yield.  These  selected  plants  were  also 
propagated  vegetatively  and  the  resulting  plants  are  being  grown 
in  the  greenhouse.  Some  of  them  are  growing  in  pots  in  the 
original  soil  in  which  the  parent  plants  were  grown,  while  others 
are  growing  in  various  mixtures  of  widely  differing  soils.  In  this 
manner  it  is  hoped  that  some  information  may  be  gained  upon 
the  behavior  of  the  alkaloids  with  respect  to  inheritance,  effects 
of  soils,  variation  in  yield  from  plants  grown  from  open  pollinated 
and  close  fertilized  seeds,  and  from  those  propagated  by  cuttings. 
