Chapter VIII 



79 



The Ghondriome (cont'd) 



lowed. A study of the latter can hardly be made from preparations 

 where the mitochondrial technique has been used, for, although 

 the plastids are stained, there is no indication as to what pigments 

 they contain. So in the flower of Clivia nobilis, it can be seen that 

 the orange-red pigment, carotin, arises directly from chondrio- 

 conts. Small starch grains are first elaborated and, at the moment 

 when these are absorbed, the carotinoid pigment arises in the in- 

 terior of the chondrioconts as small grains or more especially as 

 long needle-shaped crystals. In the flower of Sternbergia the 

 chondrioconts form several acicular crj^stals of carotin which give 

 them the appearance of thick spindles. In other cases, the chondrio- 

 somes in which the pigment will form are always chondrioconts 



Fig. 44 (left). — Development of leucoplasts in living 

 epidermal cells in leaves of Iris pallida. 1, lipide granules 

 (GG) within the leucoplasts (chondrioconts) in a young leaf; 

 2, detail of leucoplasts; 3, later stage, leucoplasts containing 

 starch (A); A, absorption of starch, diminution in lipide 

 granules; 5, leucoplasts without starch containing lipide gran- 

 ules in adult leaf. 



Fig. 45 (right). — • Living epidermal cells of a petal of 

 white tulip. At left, from a young flower; at right, from a 

 mature flower. C, chondriosomes; Chr, chromoplasts; GL, 

 lipide granules; O, fatty body. 



enclosing small starch grains. When these are absorbed, small 

 vesiculate swellings enclosing a watery liquid are formed on the 

 long axis of the chondriocont. Small grains of carotin appear on 

 the walls of these vesicles which later become isolated by rupture 

 of the slender regions of the chondriocont which separate them. 

 They then appear as small rounded vesiculate chromoplasts (peri- 

 carp of the fruit of Asparagus officinalis and of Arum italicum) . In 

 the epidermis of the perianth of Iris germanica the phenomena are 

 a little more complicated. The yellow pigment, xanthophyll, first 

 appears in a diffuse state in the chondrioconts which contain small 



