ALBERT

Description: The effect of applying a nitrogenous fertiliser to wheat at seven different times and three rates, was studied in pot culture. It was found that the later the time of application the smaller was the increase in the yield of total dry matter and of straw. The increase in the yield of grain, on the other hand, was constant for the first six times of application, the last of which was made on May 25, but a later application made after ear emergence produced no increase.Analysis of the grain yield showed that early application produced its effect by increasing the number of ears per plant. Later applications caused a smaller increase in ear number, but also increased the number of grains per ear and 1000-corn weight. There was no evidence of a critical time for tiller formation such as has been postulated by Doughty and Engledow.The increase in total nitrogen uptake was equal for all times of application, but the ratio of nitrogen in grain to nitrogen in straw and chaff was greater, the later the time of application.The writer wishes to thank Messrs A. M. S. Clarke, G. T. Detlefsen and S. A. W. French for much help with the experimental work, and Mr R. G. Warren for making the nitrogen determinations.

Description: 1. A comparison is made of Δ for the blood of sheep with Δ for the contents of the stomach compartments. It is suggested that the approximate identity of the two sets of values is best explained by the view that absorption takes place from the compartments.2. A variation of 0·570–0·630 is recorded for Δ for the blood of sheep.

Description: 1. The effect of low-temperature treatment on some varieties of wheat, barley and oats has been found to be profoundly affected by the time of sowing of the treated grain.2. Winter sowing showed the least vernalisation effect, while in the spring the stimulative action became more pronounced as far as earing acceleration is concerned, as the sowing was made progressively later. This was particularly marked in winter varieties.3. Developmental studies of the control and vernalised plants showed the stimulative action on early growth and growing point development in the winter varieties.4. Tiller counts on control and vernalised plants of three winter wheat varieties demonstrated the fact that each variety was stimulated to earlier tiller production, but in two of the varieties this resulted in a reduction of surviving ears at harvest.

Description: ONE mile due east of Tantallon Castle, on the East Lothian coast, there stands a conspicuous tower or beacon. Its purpose is to afford an offshore warning to mariners. It has been constructed upon the seaward extremity of a northerly-extending ridge of volcanic ash or agglomerate. In recent years the rocks exposed here have been carefully examined by a well-known Edinburgh geologist, the late Mr. T. Cuthbert Day, and his results are reported in an interesting paper entitled “Volcanic Vents on the Coast, from Tantallon Castle eastwards to Peffer Sands, and at Whitberry Point” (Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., xii, 1930, p. 213). Mr. Day thought that the ash and agglomerate lying south of the beacon represented the materials belonging to two contiguous but distinct volcanic vents of Lower Carboniferous age. To the twin orifices he applied the designation—“ The Car Double Vent.” In the northerly vent there occur two basaltic intrusions intersecting the pyroclastic rock. One of these, an irregular 4 ft. dyke, trends north-west hard by the easterly side of the beacon. The other, an oval plug covering 500 square feet, or thereby, is situated about 100 yards to the south-east. Both masses were determined petrographically by Mr. Day as “ dark red basalt with conspicuous dark crystals of augite, somewhat decomposed, but appearing under the microscope to approach a limburgitic type ”. It is in reference to these “ limburgitic ” intrusions that I present the following brief note, because, lately, I have discovered that they consist of leucite-basanite, a rock of basic felspathoidal character not previously known to occur in this country.