MITOCHONDRIA IN PLANT AND ANIMAL CELLS. 



197 



A very important issue at stake is the relationship of plant 

 and animal mitochondria. Are the researches of the botanist 

 of interest to the anatomist and vice versa? Should we attempt 

 to coordinate and correlate the two, and, if so, how far can we go? 

 Though these questions have never been directly attacked, con- 

 siderable difference of opinion is apparent in the literature. 

 Suffice it to say that Pensa ('14, p. 22) states that the mitochon- 

 dria in plant and animal cells are not identical; Guilliermond 

 ('130, p. 481) and Smirnow ('06, p. 153) think that they are; 

 Duesberg and Hoven ('10, p. 99) believe them to be homologous; 

 while Sapehin ('15, p. 320) holds an intermediate view. He 

 thinks that in the higher plants mitochondria-like forms may be 

 divided into two groups: "plastids" and " chondriosomes " 

 which, however, are indistinguishable in the early meristem. 



I have devoted my whole attention to this single problem of 

 the relationship of plant and animal mitochondria with the 

 hope of obtaining results which are clear-cut, concise and definite, 

 bringing to bear upon it old, as well as entirely new, methods of 

 technique in the form of supravital dyes of the janus green 

 series which have never before been applied to plant cells. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



The statements concerning the similarity or the dissimilarity 

 of plant and animal mitochondria have been made, with but 

 few notable exceptions, by investigators having personal experi- 



;s-:: 



FIGS, i and 2. Cells from the pea and the pancreas fixed in formalin and 

 bichromate, mordanted in bichromate (Regaud IV. B) and stained with iron 

 hematoxylin. (1,500 diameters.) 



