Guilliermond - Atkinson — 148 — Cytoplasm 



aggregated state of anthocyanin and thiat this pigment might, 

 according to the conditions in which the cell is at the time, assume 

 two different colloidal states in the cytoplasm: an aggregated 

 state characterized by the chondriosome-shaped elements scattered 

 throughout the cytoplasm and a state of dispersion, i.e., a state 

 of pseudosolution in the cytoplasm. By treating with alkaloids 

 those cells containing anthocyanin in the state of a pseudosolution 

 in the cytoplasm, Pensa claims to have obtained a return of the 

 pigments to the aggregated state, characterized by the produc- 

 tion of anthocyanin granules assembled in little chains or in a 

 network. Thus, according to Pensa, the chondriosome-shaped ele- 

 ments of anthocyanin do not always coincide with the stage of the 

 formation of pigment. But Pensa's interpretation is erroneous, 

 for the author did not understand that the pigment is dissolved 

 in the vacuoles and not in the cytoplasm, and that the phases which 

 he attributed to the state of pseudosolution of the pigment corre- 

 spond to the dispersion state of the anthocyanin within a single 

 enormous vacuole, occupying the major part of the cell and sur- 

 rounded only by a thin layer of parietal cytoplasm. That which 

 Pensa considers to be the cytoplasm is, therefore, nothing more 

 than vacuolar sap. Alkaloids do indeed bring about flocculation 

 (an aggregated state) of anthocyanin in the form of granules 

 showing Brownian movement. The granules are precipitates of 

 tannin absorbing the pigment as they form. These precipitates 

 may assemble in little chains or in a network, and were erroneous- 

 ly likened by Pensa to the figures observed in meristematic cells. 

 In the meristematic cells it is a question of small elements shaped 

 like granules or filaments, resembling the chondriosomes, made up 

 of a concentrated colloidal solution quite different from the vacu- 

 oles known at that time. Dangeard later gave these small ele- 

 ments their true title of young vacuoles. There is nothing in 

 common between these small vacuoles and the precipitations of 

 anthocyanin obtained by Pensa in mature cells. 



Credit must go to P. A. Dangeard for having oriented this study 

 in a new direction. We have already said that in studying the 

 origin of the vacuoles in very diverse plants by means of vital 

 stains, among others cresyl blue, this investigator found in the 

 meristematic cells of plants and in the growing tips of fungal 

 hyphae that vacuoles always appear as numerous and minute ele- 

 ments in the form of granules, isolated or united in little chains, 

 or of filaments which often anastomose in networks, staining very 

 deeply and homogeneously with vital dyes. These very closely 

 resemble the chondriosomes and are composed of a very con- 

 centrated colloidal solution. They are elements which by hydra- 

 tion become transformed little by little in the course of cellular 

 differentiation into fluid vacuoles. 



Later, taking up our observations on the origin of anthocy- 

 anin, P. A. Dangeard (C/. p. 130) demonstrated that, just as 

 Arthur Meyer had predicted, the elements which we had described 

 as chondriosomes in reality represented young vacuoles with very 



