Miscellaneous. 4G1 



FORMATION OF CELLS IN THE APICES OF ROOTS. 



Niigeli in the ' Linnsea,' vol. xvi. p. 252, says, " If exceedingly fine 

 sections be made at the punctum vegetationis, where the different 

 layers of the root meet as in one focus, and if some cells be then iso- 

 lated by laceration, there will be found among them : 1 . cells with one 

 cytoblast; 2. cells with two cytoblasts ; 3. cells with two cytoblasts 

 and a septum between them. This I usually saw when examining 

 the actually growing apex of a radicle of Lilium, Tulipa, or Iris. Once 

 I saw a large, longish nucleus which appeared just in the act of di- 

 vision ; another time, within one cell, two young cells each with a 

 nucleus, which had not yet grown broad enough to form a septum by 

 the union of their membranes. I feel justified by these facts in saying 

 quite decidedly, that, in the apex of the roots of these plants, the 

 growth takes place in such a manner that two cell- nuclei originate in 

 each mother-cell, and around each of these nuclei a new cell. Unger 

 maintains that the usual mode of origin in elementary organs is the 

 formation of septa in the cells, i. e. self-division ; the formation of new 

 cells in those already existing is limited to a few cases ; of the deve- 

 lopment of cell-nuclei into cells, I could observe nothing." Nor I 

 either. I also saw light-coloured corpuscules in those root-cells, 

 sometimes surrounded by a bright circle, but am inclined to affirm 

 decidedly that no true cells originate from them. — Link in his Report 

 on Physiological Botany for 1842 and 43. 



On the Demerara Pink-root, or Spigelia Anthelmia*. By 

 Dr. George R. BoNYUNf. 



The indigenous species of pink- root, which is in great repute 

 among the labourers of British Guiana, particularly those residing 

 on the banks of the rivers, has not as yet, I believe, in this colony 

 been sufficiently brought to the notice of medical men, nor its rela- 

 tion to the Spigelia marilandica, or officinal pink-root, determined. 

 This herb, which grows in great abundance on the west and Arabian 

 coasts, and on the banks of the rivers, is identical with that described 

 by Patrick Browne, anno 1756, p. 156, in his 'Civil and Natural 

 History of Jamaica,' as " Anthelmintia or wormwood." He there 

 says, " This vegetable has been long in use among the Negroes and 

 Indians, who were the first acquainted with its virtues, and takes its 

 present denomination from its peculiar efficacy in destroying worms, 

 which I dare affirm, from a great number of successful experiments, 

 it does in so extraordinary a manner, that no other simple can be of 

 equal efficacy in any other disease, as this is in those which proceed 

 from these insects, especially when attended with fever or convul- 



* S. Caule hevbaceo ramoso, foliis oblon^is utrinque altenuatis, summis 

 quaternis, racemis spicatis staminibus corolla brevioribus. — Sprengel, vol. i. 

 p. 584. 



f Read before the Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, 

 9th Sept. 1814. 



