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The article reports on tetraploid hostas or plants that have four pairs of chromosomes. Topics discussed include the disadvantages of having two extra pairs of chromosomes, identification of Hosta ventricosa as a tetraploid and debate of enthusiasts on the similarity on the similarity of a tissue cultured cultivar to the original hosta. Also mentioned is the effort to micropropagate the plants that did not result in structural changes.

The article presents the author's views on his works of planting hosta seeds since 1993. According to him, he has grown thousands of seedlings and has registered 70 cultivars which includes Algan Fog hybrids, streaked hosta hybrids and pod parent hybrids. He further states that pod parent is the plant which can hybrid easily inspite of its clump shape, color or presence of wax on the leaves.

The article shows the hosta-friendly trees recommended for cultivation. The author recommends mature oaks as suitable hosta gardening shades over maple trees because the latter do not fit as high-canopy shades for hostas because they consume large amounts of water during a dry summer. Other trees that suit with hostas vary on different conditions including white ash, apple trees, and tuliptrees.

The article focuses on the set of data involving ploidy information and pollen viability which were taken from the research made by Ben J.M. Zonneveld. The two sets of data for hosta cultivars were organized according to diploids, triploids, tetraploids and ploidy chimeras. The author presents the implications of these data sets to various cultivars such as Hosta Blue Mouse Ears, Hosta ventricosa and Hosta Sum and Substance. According to the author, the a priori correlation between ploidy and the qualities of a cultivar is weakened by these data.

The article focuses on the cultivation and classification of white-centered hostas. The author describes the cultivars from four hosta categories including white center, creamy-white center, viridescent center and albescent center. He also shares his experiences in dealing with the challenges involved in growing white-centered hostas.

Photographs of a range of older cultivars of hostas which include H. 'Sum and Substance', H. montana 'Aureomarginata', and H. 'Paradise Joyce' are presented.

In this article the author offers some guidelines in gathering data and submitting a registration for hostas. Familiarization with the American Hosta Society (AHS) through their Web site is recommended. He recommends to photograph each cultivar and put their names on each sheet and the use of an additional information sheet where the significance of the name and parentage are indicated. Before submission, he suggests to make a copy of the forms and photographs for safekeeping.

The article presents a guide to selecting and registering hosta sports and seedlings. When separating a sport from the mother plant, wash off the crown thoroughly to see exactly what the base of the sported division looks like and then dissect the sport free with a clean kitchen knife. When the mother plant is a seedling of a streaked pod parent, the solid-colored sports of a variegated plant may turn out to be really vigorous and interesting enough to be registered.

This article discusses research being done on cell layers and leaf variegation in hosta cultivars. It references a study by Ben J. M. Zonneveld in an issue of "Plant Systematics and Evolution." The main objective of the study was to show that hostas are built from three apical or meristematic layers, not two as has often been suggested.

The article offers tips on hybridizing experiments on pollen and pod parents. Using Hosta sieboldiana as pod parents produces offsprings that are medium and large blue-green landscape plants. A soilless mix can be used to grow hosta seedlings. Liquid fertilizers can also be good for seedlings especially if they are contained in the potting mix.

The article presents tips for hosta hybridizers on dealing with their seedlings. One may either grow seedlings for three to four years before making a selection, or save only yellow seedlings and cull everything that does not meet one's criteria. According to the author, he grows three categories of seedlings, including streaked or variegated seedlings and yellow seedlings.

The article provides tips for collecting seeds and growing seedlings of hostas. According to the article, harvesting in Central New York is best done during mid to late September. Pods are dried in open air. In extracting seeds, plump ones are separated from the black seeds which may be placed in small envelopes then labeled. The hosta seeds should be kept at room temperature. Soiling potting mixes with fertilizers put in trays and covered with a transparent lid may be used to grow the plants.

The article offers step-by-step instructions to selecting and pollinating seed pods of hosta.

Presents an article on dealing with several problems in hosta gardening. Weed control for the Canada thistle; Background on damages caused by white-tailed deer to the garden; Occurrence of difficulties in dealing with hosta cultivars.

Discusses the evolution of several concepts of species in the genus Hosta. Factors that influenced the rate of evolutionary change in hosta species according to the concept of a Darwin machine; Suggestions from Ben Zonneveld and Frank van Iren on approaches to hosta classification; List of the proposed classification of hosta species.

Rhabdom shedding in horseshoe crab lateral eye photoreceptors was studied with anti‐opsin and anti‐arrestin immunocytochemistry. Two, possibly three, distinct shedding mechanisms were revealed in animals maintained in natural lighting. Transient rhabdom shedding, triggered by dawn, is a brief, synchronous event that removes up to 10% of the rhabdom membrane. Whorls of rhabdomeral membrane break into vesicles and form compact multivesicular bodies. These debris particles are immunoreactive for opsin and are of a relatively uniform size, averaging approximately 2 μm2in area. Transient shedding requires that input from circadian efferent fibers to the retina precedes the light trigger, and cutting the optic nerve blocks efferent input and transient shedding. Light‐driven rhabdom shedding is a progressive process. Rhabdomeral membrane is removed by coated vesicles that accumulate into loosely packed multivesicular bodies. These debris particles label with antibodies directed against opsin, arrestin, and adaptin, and they have a large distribution of sizes, averaging almost 6 μm2in area and ranging up to 25 μm2or more. The amount of rhabdomeral membrane removed by light‐driven shedding has seasonal variation and depends on latitude. Light‐driven shedding does not require circadian efferent input. A possible third shedding mechanism, light‐independent shedding, is observed when transient shedding is blocked either by 48 hours of darkness or by cutting the optic nerve. Small particles, averaging 1.8 μm2in area, exhibiting opsin but not arrestin immunoreactivity can then be found in the cytoplasm surrounding the rhabdom. The nature of light‐independent shedding is not yet clear. J. Comp. Neurol. 449:26–42, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Bresiliid shrimp from hydrothermal vents on the Mid–Atlantic Ridge have non–imaging eyes adapted for photodetection in light environments of very low intensity. Comparison of retinal structures between both vent shrimp and surface–dwelling shrimp with imaging eyes, and between juvenile and adult vent shrimp, suggests that vent shrimp have evolved from ancestors that lived in a light environment with bright cyclic lighting. Whether the vent shrimp live in swarms and have large dorsal eyes or live in sparse groupings and have large anterior eyes, the basic retinal adaptations are the same across species. Retinal adaptations in adult vent shrimp include the loss of dioptrics, enlargement of both the rhabdomeral segment of the photoreceptors and the light–sensitive rhabdomere therein, attenuation of the arhabdomeral segment of the photoreceptors, reduction of black screening pigment, development of a white diffusing layer behind the photoreceptors, and the loss of rhabdom turnover.

Exploration of deep‐sea hydrothermal vents over the past quarter century has revealed that they support unique and diverse biota. Despite the harsh nature of the environment, vents along the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge are dominated by large masses of highly motile Bresiliid shrimp. Until 1989, when it was discovered that the vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculatapossesses a hypertrophied dorsal eye, many believed that animals populating hydrothermal vents were blind. Chorocaris chacei(originally designated Rimicaris chacei) is a Bresiliid shrimp found at hydrothermal vent fields along the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge. Like R. exoculata, C. chaceihas a hypertrophied retina that appears to be specialized to detect the very small amount of light emitted from the orifices of black smoker hydrothermal vent chimneys. C. chaceilacks the sophisticated compound eyes common to other decapod crustaceans. Instead, it has a smooth cornea, with no dioptric apparatus, apposed by a tightly packed, massive array of photosensitive membrane. Photoreceptors in the C. chaceiretina are segmented into a hypertrophied region that contains the photosensitive membrane and an atrophied cell body that is roughly ten times smaller in volume than the photosensitive segment. The microvillar photosensitive membrane is consistent in structure and ultrastructure with the rhabdoms of decapod and other invertebrate retinas. However, the volume density of photosensitive membrane (≥60%) exceeds that typically observed in invertebrate retinas. The reflecting pigment cells commonly found in decapod retinas are represented in the form of a matrix of white diffusing cells that exhibit Tyndall scattering and form an axial sheath around the photoreceptors. All photoreceptor screening pigment granules and screening pigment cells are restricted to the region below the photoreceptor nuclei and are thereby removed from the path of incident light. No ultrastructural evidence of rhythmic cycling of photosensitive membrane was observed. The morphological adaptations observed in the C. chaceiretina suggest that it is a high‐sensitivity photodetector that is of functional significance to the animal. J. Comp. Neurol. 385:503–514, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Resource programs, sometimes called pull-out programs, have been widely criticized recently. Several professionals have asserted that programs that pull students out of general classrooms for special instruction have for the most part failed to meet the needs of these students. As an alternative to pull-out programs, many professionals recommend that students who have problems be educated full-time in general classrooms. This article provides a critical inspection of resource programs. The resource program model is first described. This is followed by a critical analysis of these programs and some suggestions for future directions.

Cultured fibroblasts derived from experimental gerbil cholesteatoma tissue exhibit an invasive phenotype in comparison with normal fibroblasts.

The article tackles the problem with excessive sunlight in cultivating hostas. It points out that experimentation in the garden may be necessary to find optimal growing conditions for a particular cultivar as adaptation to sunlight, moisture and temperature vary widely from cultivar to cultivar. It also explains the causes of leaf burn and describes photostasis, the process of adapting to maintain maximum photosynthesis efficiency under the changing amounts of sunlight.

The article focuses on the development of a technology which aims to help hosta gardeners in protecting their plants from animal consumption. The system is developed by Repellex USA Inc. and includes the combination of capsaicin from chili peppers and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). According to the author, much has been expected from this product in terms of its ability to serve as a systematic deer repellant.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of getting pod-parent or pollen-parent hostas to bloom earlier in the season.

1.1. The constituent fatty acids of the neutral and phospholipids of Macrobdella ditetra, Nephelopsis obscura, Philobdella gracilisand Hirudo medicinalishave been determined.2.2. Unsaturated fatty acids predominated in both neutral and phospholipid fractions of all leech species examined.3.3. Arachidonic acid (20:4) was the most prevalent fatty acid in all species, accounting for as much as 36.7% of the total phospholipid fatty acids.

The article focuses on the issues related to the application of DNA fingerprinting to hostas. One of the questions regarding this technology is the amount of variability found in every single category of hosta. The author also explains the results of the experimental procedures involving the application of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to Hosta Great Expectations and Hosta Dream Weaver hosta sport.

The article presents the flow cytometry as the preferred laboratory technique for measuring the amount of DNA in the nucleus of plant cells. The measurement of DNA in the cell nucleus is said to be helpful to hostaphiles in the examination of species in a genus and the determination of ploidy and identification of ploidy chimeras in cultivars. The flow cytometry works through its nuclei that passes through a measurement light beam. It cites that a careful calibration of intensity (x-axis) is essential for the absolute determination of DNA amount.

The article presents the three apical cell layers from which shoots, roots and flowers are produced by apical meristem and designated as L1, L2 and L3. A proper labelling of each layer for identification is cited to determine the relationship between plant parts and apical layers. It also offers the ploidy chimeras in hostas that provides a convenient way of determining one layer from another. It concludes that there is still much to be investigated to determine the layer boundaries in a particular variegated cultivar leaf.

The article discusses ploidy which refers to the number of sets of chromosomes in the nucleus present in Hosta (H.) cells. Most hostas are mentioned as diploid with two sets of chromosomes except for the hosta species H. ventricosa with four complete sets of chromosome and is a tetraploid and the H. clausa var. clausa with three complete sets of chromosomes and is a triploid. It defines aneuploidy in hosta cultivars as the nuclei of individual cells containing a combination of full and partial sets of chromosomes that often affect morphology.

A letter to the editor and a response by Steven C. Chamberlain to the letter to the editor about two articles is presented, including "The Case for H. clausa and H. rectifolia as Parents of H. ventricosa" and "The Mysterious Origin of Hosta ventricosa Revealed," by Ben J. M. Zonneveld.

The article discusses the origin of Hosta ventricosa. H. ventricosa is the only tetraploid hosta species. A study of H. ventricosa and H. clausa var. clausa was conducted to determine the origin of H. ventricosa. The main difference between H. ventricosa and H. clausa var. clausa is discussed, as well as the outcome of crossing H. clausa with H. rectifolia. The article also discusses how H. ventricosa seeds are formed.

Comments on the article "Mulch: A Natural Way to Assist Mother Nature," by Butch Ragland published within the issue. Revelation of practical implications of some research from the field of soil science that should be of particular interest to hostaphiles; Explanation of some personal garden mysteries of the author; Use of soilless mix for mulch by the author.

Presents scanning electron micrographs of pollens of two Hosta species.

The author looks at the DNA techniques used by botanist W. George Schmid and Ben Zonneveld in differentiating species of plant genus Hosta. The study by Zonneveld tends to classify plant species while the random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis of Schmid is about splitting the species. The author agrees with the conclusion of Schmid that too much attention is being given on the number of hosta species. According to the author, gardeners are more interested in collecting wild hosta than hosta species.

The article provides information on the random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. A definition of the analysis is cited. The polymerase chain reaction is a process of replicating the undetectable quantities of DNA sequences. The study titled "Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) Analysis in the Genus Hosta" used the RAPD technique to determine the differences and similarities between putative hosta species.

Discusses several articles about hosta that are published in the 2005 issue of "The Hosta Journal." Emergence times and regional variation of hostas; Occurrence of foliar nematodes in hosta; Hosta genetics.

Presents a correction to an article regarding cultivar names of petioles that was previously published in the volume 34, number 2 issue of "The Hosta Journal."