Chapter IX 



87 — Ghondriosomes & Plastids 



and dimensions. Scherrer and Sapehin think, furthermore, that 

 chondriosomes are not permanent elements of the cytoplasm but 

 that it is more probable that they are merely reserve products. 

 Meyer, who was the instigator of this opinion, attributed to the 

 chondriosomes a ferronuclein-like constitution and called them 

 Allinantes. NOACK has carried this idea further and maintains 

 that there is not the least morphological or histochemical resemb- 

 lance at any time between (Chondriosomes and plastids. He finds 

 chloroplasts even in the meristematic cells of buds of Elodea cana- 

 densis and shows them to be different histochemically from the 

 chondriosomes, for they are preserved by all the fixatives which 

 destroy chondriosomes. 



Jaretzky, in his German edition of Sharp's book, Einfuhrung 

 in die Zytologie appears to be of the same opinion, an opinion ex- 

 pressed, moreover, with insufficient knowledge of the question. 

 Geitler takes the same stand (Grundriss der Zytologie) and also 



Fig. 55. 

 Scherrer), 



Anthoceros. C, chondriosomes; P. plastid. (After 



KtJSTER. The latter, particularly in Die Pflanzenzelle, tends to con- 

 sider the chondriosomes as heterogeneous formations resulting 

 from cellular metabolism. 



P. A. Dangeard, having made observations exclusively on liv- 

 ing material, first thought, as will be shown further on, that the 

 formations described as chondriosomes belonged to the initial forms 

 of the vacuolar system (vacuome, p. 149) and that the refractive 

 granules corresponded to the microsomes of early authors. 

 These are encountered in all cells and will be discussed later (p. 

 203). According to Dangeard, the plastids, therefore, bear no 

 relation to these dissimilar formations, the chondriosomes. How- 

 ever, after more profound studies with mitochondrial technique, 

 Dangeard was obliged little by little to renounce his former opm- 

 ion. He had to recognize that the chondriosomes, which he at 

 first had found impossible to distinguish from the leucoplasts, are 

 discrete elements corresponding neither to young vacuoles nor to 

 microsomes, and that they evidently very much resemble the leuco- 

 plasts^ 



>P. A. DANGEARD. who, however, is not convinced as to the individuality of the chondno- 

 aomes says in his last re-statement of the question with reference to the multiplication of the 

 ^Tndriosomes. "If this multiplication were to take place by division or fragmentation, the 

 chondriosomes would be akin to the plastids but distinguishable from them . 



