Oiapter XVIII — 203 — Lipide Granules 



arises from the fusion of numerous small globules and appears to 

 correspond to the elaioplasts of Wakker. On the other hand, the 

 bodies comparable to the elaioplasts which are encountered in the 

 hepatics have a constitution much more complex. They are much 

 more difficult to interpret and are still little known. 



The quantity of lipide granules varies a great deal from 

 one cell to another, according to the state of cellular development. 

 There are cells in which they are very rare but usually they are 

 very numerous. These granules give lipide reactions. As well 

 as reducing osmic acid (Fig. 141) , they stain with Sudan, scarlet R, 

 tincture of Alkanna and indophenol blue. They seem to have a vari- 

 able chemical constitution and the microchemical characteristics 

 either of simple lipides or those of compound lipides, according to 





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Fig. 140. — Elodea canadensis. 1, Cell from the leaf fixed 

 with Meves' method, stained with acid fuchsin, which colors 

 the chloroplasts (P) and chondriosomes (M) red; lipide 

 granules (GL) colored dark brown by the osmic acid. 

 2, detail; some chloroplasts are dividing. 



the type examined. In paraffin sections, Regaud's method does not 

 preserve them and the osmic acid used in the method of Meves 

 turns them brown. Sometimes they stain in frozen sections with 

 Dietrich's and Regaud's methods. (Fig. 143). 



These granules, which correspond to the microsomes of other 

 writers, represent simple products of metabolism and perhaps in 

 many cases they are also the product of a transitory, or final 

 breaking down, of the lipides from the lipo-protein compounds 

 (phenomenon of lipophanerosis). Famin has recently shown that 

 their quantity increases, especially when the cells are submitted 

 to high temperatures. 



These granules attracted the attention of P. A. Dangeard, 

 who in his observations of living plant cells described them suc- 

 cessively as microsomes, spherosomes, cytosomes and liposomes. 

 This investigator made of them a permanent system of the cell 

 which he designated first as spherome, then as cytome and then 



