The concentration of endogenous ethylene in tomato fruits increased quickly with the ripening of the fruit and the rate of respiration raised gradually. However, the respiratory rate of overripened fruits decreased gradually. The optimum temperature of ethylene production by fruit wall tissue slices was about 26 ℃. The R10 between 12 ℃ and 26 ℃ was 2.8 and that between 2 ℃ and 12 ℃ was 1.7. Under temperature 26 ℃, ethylene evolution from tissue slices were suppressed by low O2 and high CO2, and the critical concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide were about 7% and 5%, respectively. Ethylene evolution was markedly suppressed by the inhibitors of protein and nucleie acid synthesis such as cycloheximide and actinomycin D. In this paper, the mechanism of controlling and regulating ethylene production as well as the control and regulation of fruit ripening and senescence by ethylene was discussed.

On the sandy ground of Min-qin county, under the condition of different localities, there are plants of different types of tillering characteristics. Plants on the fixed and semi-fixed sand dunes are of tap root type, those of the lowland among the dunes belong to the rhizome type; while the root shooting represents a transitional type between the above two types. Sand covering and its changes are important factors affecting the tillering characteristics of plants. As the sand cover thickens, plants adapt themselves by elongating their root crowns and developing two or more root crowns, two layers of horizontal roots or rhizomes. Judging from the characteristics of tillering, Iris ensata may be considered as an aberation of a biennial, or a pseudo-perenial. Basing on these facts, the authors suggest a few principles of classification of the life span of plants in close connection with the time of existence of the terrestrial and subterraneous parts of the plants.

Method for shoot tip culture of apple seedlings (five cultivars) and rootstocks (seven strains) in vitro is described, All of the cultures were proliferated either under the light or in the dark on the Murashige and Skoog medium containing benzyladenine (BA) (0.5 mg/l) and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) (0–0.1mg/l). Rapid multiplication of the shoots may be obtained in a short time. These shoots (except rootstock M. 26)Can be readily rooted in modified Start and Bruce medium containing indolebutyric acid (IBA) (0.5–1.0 mg/l) within two weeks. So far the viable plants from three varieties have been obtained.

It was found that wheat leaves sprayed with aureomycin solution showed a higher rate of photosynthesis by 10%–31%. The chloroplasts isolated from aureomycin treated leaves also sustained a higher photophosphorylation activity in both cyclic and noncyclic reaction systems. In non-cyclic system, the enhancement of photophosphorylation is more than that of electron transfer thus resulting in a P/2e of 1.5, significanthy higher than that of ordinary chloroplast preparation which is considered as a unit. The relationship between the increase of P/2e ratio of the isolated chloroplasts and the promotion of photosynthetic rate by aureomycin was discussed.

It is determined that the gum in the endosperm of Sesbania cannabina (Retz.) Pers. is consisted of D-galactose and D-mannose in the proportion of 1:2.1 and is chemical structure is in the form of G1 M16 4M1

The pistillate flower of Hodgsonia macrocarpa Cogn. usually grows in solitary in the leafaxil. Its floral parts appear in the following order: sepals, petals, stamens, and pistil. Each of the sepals, petals, or staminodes is not equal in size at first, but later they will approach to equal. In addition, the bases of calyx and corolla unite to form the "floral tube". During the early stage of flower development, the staminate primodia are quite noticeable, but in the mature flower they become rudimentary. The staminate flower of Hodgsonia usually recemose in the leafaxil. Each of the inforescence with 15–20 floral buds or each of the flowers has a bract at the base. The developmental sequence of the staminate flower is similar to the pistillate flower. The carpal primodium of the staminate flower appears as normal, but it will not develop further and stays on rudimentary. The petal marginal meristem of pistillate and staminate flower keeps its activity for a long time, after the lengthening of the petal venation and forms 5–7 thread-like appendages.

Studies were made on male-sterility of cultivated rice' induced by "Male-gametocide No. I" which contained Zinc methyl arsenate (CH3AsO3Zn·H2O) as its major ingredient. When applied at the uninucleate stage, CH3AsO3H2 was absorbed and, translocated to the panicle rapidly. The effect of the gametocide was to hinder the normal respiratory metabolism of the anther which produced aborted pollens subsequently, resulting in male-sterility of the rice plant. The percentage of male-sterilized flowers caused by this gametocide was 95% to 100%.

Abundant unicellular microfossils have been discovered in the stromatolitic cherts of Mid-Proterozoie Wumishan Formation (Sinian System) from western Hopei Province, China. These microfossils were critically studied in. petrographic thin sections of the cherts. K-Ar and U-Pb isotopes analyses give the age of Wumishan Formation approximate 1,300 millon years. These microfossils are well preserved in the siliceous matrix (chalcedony) in their natural state. Cellular microstructure of some microfossils are well preserved and is more complex in structure than any Precambrian procaryotic microfossils known to us. Some of cellular structures are similar to the nucleus or the organelles, which indicate that these microfossils are eucaryotic organisms. Some of the microfossils are apparently in the state of cell division, which shows that the cell division is perhaps not typical mitosis. The primary data in morphology of thes microorganisms and that of the infrared spectroscopic analyses of acid-resistant organic residues are given in this paper. Four new genera and seven new species are described, they are considered to be related to Rhodophyta.

Rhododendron dabanshanense is a new species of Rhododendron. The clinical studies on the treatment of chronic bronchitis patients show that the aqueous extracts of Rhododendron dabanshanense have relatively curative effect. Four phenolic components have been isolated from the plant and identified as betuligenol, betuloside, quercetin and quercetin-3-arabinoside respectively, according to m.p., UV, IR, MS and NMR spectra. Except quercetin, the three others are not isolated so far from Rhododendron in China.