ON SOME PROTEIN CRYSTALLOIDS. 119 



dyes, for they stain of a purple colour (Figs, ii and 13, a). Most 

 of the hairs, however, are entirely red. Figs. 12 and 13, <^, contain 

 large vacuoles in the protoplasm (Fig. 12, v.), and also in the 

 nucleus {nv.), and possess few or no crystalloids. Some of the 

 hairs are quite withered and shrivelled up (Fig. 13, b). I have 

 several times observed, lying in the loculi of ovaries of this age, 

 groups of crystalloids discharged by withered hairs (Fig. 13, c). 

 Sometimes the entire shrunken hair remains in close proximity to 

 the crystalloids ; at other times, as in Fig. 13, only a few traces of 

 protoplasm,/^., are discernible about the group, looking as if a 

 large hair had burst. 



The gradual increase in quantity of the cytoplasmic, and cor- 

 responding diminution of nucleolar erythrophilous matter, would 

 seem to point to some relation of the crystalloids to the nucleolus, 

 which latter has been regarded by some authors as a storehouse of 

 nourishment. 



Stock has further shown that protein crystalloids are deposits 

 of reserve albumen, and Green* has lately examined the style of 

 the lily, and states that " The distribution of nutritive mate- 

 rial, especially starch, in this organ was found to have a very 

 definite relation to the progress of the pollen tube ; " and further, 

 " The nutrition of the tube is a process in which the grain itself, 

 and the tissue through which it grows take a part, both contain a 

 reserve material and enzymes." 



May it, therefore, not be that the function of the placental 

 hairs, so rich in protoplasm and crystalloids, is to nourish and thus 

 to guide the pollen tube ? 



A parallel chain of facts to that furnished by the life-history of 

 the hairs is given by those epidermal cells lining the three slits 

 which are placed symmetrically in the tissue of the ovaries, and 

 are formed by the upper surfaces of the three carpellary leaves 

 failing to unite at these places. In young buds these cells show 

 several nucleoli, frequently six. In older stages the nucleoli 

 diminish in number to one, which latter is often so diminutive as 

 to be all but imperceptible ; at this time minute hexagonal crystal- 

 loids make their appearance in the cytoplasm (Fig. 14, cr.). Out 



* Green, Annals of Botany, June, 1S94. 



