92 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



the "Relief Schicht," and the inner surface of this outer layer the 

 "Negative Relief Schicht." The latter presents the negative 

 picture of the former in that instead of minute columns there are 

 toothlike incisions corresponding to the columns of the "Relief 

 Schicht." The layer between these two he terms the stratiun 

 comeum. He further claims that the outer cells of the inner layer 

 of the stratum corneum are similar to those of the outer layer and 

 terms them the "Second . Relief Schicht." He believes that 

 separation occurs along a line corresponding to the boundary 

 between the "Negative Relief Schicht" and the second "Relief 

 Schicht" and that when the outer layer is cast off the second 

 "Relief Schicht" becomes the first and then a second line of cleavage 

 occtus making a second "Relief Schicht" and a "Negative Relief 

 Schicht." This cleavage goes on at regular intervals. He found 

 that the fine colimm-like structures of the cells were very much 

 more pronounced in the foot pads and at the apices of the scales. 



In Anolis the first or outer "Relief Schicht" of Keller is very 

 prominent on the under surface of the adhesive pads of the second 

 phalanges. The second "Relief Schicht" is also present when the 

 outer layer of the stratum comeum is well separated from the 

 inner layer, but no "Negative Relief Schicht" was noted. On the 

 outer cells of the outer layer of the stratum comeimi of the scales 

 of the general body, occasionally minute spicules resembling short 

 cilia may be seen in stained preparations but such occurrence 

 seemed very rare. In dried scrapings, the outer cells seen on the 

 flat contain numerous dots giving them a stippled appearance 

 when examined with the high dry or oil immersion lens. These 

 probably represent the spicules that Keller has described for the 

 chameleon. (See Fig. 9.) 



The stratimi germinativum takes the haematoxylin and eosin 

 well. The cells are polygonal with fairly large vesicular nuclei. 

 In the scales this layer is from two to three cells thick but in the 

 epidermis between the scales it is at miost only two cells thick. 

 The basal layer is composed of cuboidal and columnar cells with 

 large vesicular nuclei. Their proximal borders, attached to an ill- 

 defined basement membrane, are frayed and brush-like (Fig. 8). 



That the epidermis, through phenomena of interference, exerts 

 some modifying influence on the color of the skin in Anolis is with- 

 out doubt, but that it plays the important role which Briicke 

 ascribes to it for the chameleon is doubtful. Keller, in fact, dis- 

 agrees with Briicke as to the importance of this layer even in the 



