FORMATION OF SUGAR.
A paper on "The Formation of Sugar in the Sugar-cane" was recently read by M. Aimé Girard before the Paris Academy of Sciences. By comparative investigations of the amount of cane sugar and grape sugar in different parts of the sugar-cane in the afternoon and before sunrise, the author has found that only in the substance of the leaves does this quantity vary, and that the quantity of cane sugar sinks during the night to one-half, while the quantity of reducing sugar remains almost unaltered. He finds further that the quantity of sugar-cane in the leaves increases with the illumination, on very bright days reaching nearly one per cent., considerably less on dull ones, and in either case diminishing during the night by one-half. From this the author concludes that the formation of saccharose from glucose takes place entirely in the leaves under the influence of sunlight, and that the saccharose thereupon ascends the cane through the petioles, etc., and collects there.
A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this office.