Chapter XVII 



— 199 



Golgi Apparatus 



what we have observed in plant cells, under as accurate condi- 

 tions as possible, leads us to think that the so-called Golgi forma- 

 tions observed in animal cytology have not been well characterized. 

 Indeed, they have been observed most often by the use of methods 

 far from specific without recourse to other techniques and with- 

 out confirmation from living material. Our research on plant cells 

 would seem to indicate that the Golgi apparatus (apparatus of 

 Golgi, Holmgren, Cajal) i.e., the network, might often correspond 

 to a vacuolar system like that in plant cells, whereas most of the 

 dictyosomes obtained by osmic methods must be put into the cate- 

 gory of vesiculated chondriosomes. (An opinion recently formu- 

 lated by FiLHOL is that some dictyosomes correspond to differenti- 

 ated chondriosomes, doubtless destined to play a role in the 

 secretions of the cell). In reading the reports of some cytologists, 

 one has the impression that they are re-discovering the chondriome 

 under the name of Golgi 

 apparatus. 



The so-called Golgi appa- 

 ratus in plant cells:- It is 



clearly demonstrated, at any 

 rate, that the Golgi apparatus 

 does not exist in plant cells. 

 If we pass in review the vari- 

 ous work on cells carried out 

 with the idea of finding a 

 Golgi apparatus, we see that 

 all that has been described as 

 such corresponds either to the 



vacuolar system or to the chondriome (chondriosomes and plas- 

 tids). Thus Sanchez, Luelmo, GoNgALVEs da Cunha, Zirkle 

 by silver methods and Miss F. M. Scott by osmic methods, 

 obtained superb Golgi networks which correspond to the vacuolar 

 system in its filamentous and reticulate phases and which, more- 

 over, are considered as such by these authors. 



Drew, on the contrary, figured in the root of Allium Cepa under 

 the name of Golgi apparatus, elements obtained by silver methods 

 which it is easy to classify with the chondriome (chondriosomes 

 and plastids) and which correspond exactly to that which is ob- 

 tained by mitochondrial methods. On the other hand, BowEN, then 

 Bronte Gatenby and his collaborators, described in a variety of 

 plant cells, treated with osmic methods, certain elements in the 

 form of rings. These they consider to be distinct both from the 

 chondriosomes and from the vacuoles. These authors give to these 

 formations the name of osmiophilic platelets (Fig. 138) and con- 

 sider them to be Golgi apparatus. Beams and King claimed that 

 they had demonstrated the existence of the osmiophilic platelets of 

 Bowen and Gatenby by the following process: they subject the tip 

 of the root of Vicia Faba to ultra-centrifuging by means of the ap- 

 paratus of Beams, then, immediately after this process, they im- 



FlC. 136. — Vicia Faha. Golgi apparatus (vacu- 

 olar system) in meristem cells of the root. 

 Osmic impregnation. (After Miss ScOTT) . 



