M. Miiller on the Development of the Lycopodiacese. 31 



" amylum-cell/' I regard it in fact as actually such, and like- 

 wise as one of the earliest stages of cell-formation. They soon 

 lose the character of amylum-cells, since they become transformed 

 into another substance which is coloured brown by iodine, and 

 which again wholly incloses the nucleus like the protoplasma, 

 only in another situation, as I shall at once show further on. 



I must here however make mention of a peculiar phsenomenon 

 which remains totally inexplicable to me. When I treated these 

 cells with iodine, sether and hydrochloric acid, I found that their 

 deep indigo blue colour was changed and they became reddish 

 or even wholly colourless. When I now touched the fluid in 

 which they swam, the slight agitation instantly restored the blue 

 colour. In a state of rest however this soon disappeared again, 

 and reappeared when the fluid was touched, and so on. But if 

 the cells had become quite colourless, immediate contact with 

 some object, either of metal or wood, was necessary, and then the 

 blue colour again instantly seized upon one point — it appeared 

 to me to be the nucleus — and extended itself over the whole cell. 

 I have met with this remarkable phsenomenon in two spores. 

 In spite of every endeavour I have not hitherto been able to 

 find it again, although I have applied an infinite variety of 

 mixtures of the three reagents, and also used the hydi'ochloric 

 acid first and the others afterwards, or these first and that last. 

 It is possible that a peculiar stage of the life of the cell may be 

 here requisite, which therefore I have not again lighted on. 

 I remark however expressly, that I found this changing of colour 

 in all the blue-coloured cells of those two cells, and consequently 

 it cannot be attributed to any optical illusion, and so much the 

 less that I could continue this play of colour as long as I liked. 

 Perhaps some one else may succeed in observing this phsenome- 

 non in similar cells and by more close observation discover the 

 law, and it is for this reason that I have here called attention 

 to it. 



In the interior of the perfect young cell is found a collection of 

 that granular substance which has been already described as the 

 spore-contents, or only a single large granule as a nucleus, al- 

 ways in the centre. Around it, as has been stated above, a sub- 

 stance similar to, probably identical with the protoplasma, has 

 already been evenly deposited, the outer contour of which, firmer 

 than the inner substance, forms the whole into a cell. The 

 protoplasma has been thus equably deposited round the granules, 

 because these lie exactly in the centre of the cell, and this posi- 

 tion is an evidence of the importance of the granules for cell-for- 

 mation. They are, as often in the process of crystallization, only 

 the point of attachment, and thus the special foundation for the 

 substance deposited around them, just as we explain the forma- 



