170 BOTANY 



daughter cells. The plastidome, the individual bodies of which are 

 termed " archij^Iasts,^^ unlike the pseudochondriome, passes through 

 a definite series of changes connected intimately with the nuclear 

 division figure, differing thereby from the pseudochondriomes, which 

 are merely scattered throughout the cytoplasm. Bowen was unable 

 to discover the function of these bodies and which of them repre- 

 sents the animal chondriome. Later, however, he ascertained that 

 in the root tips and growing point of Equisetum arvense, the plasti- 

 dome system is apparently entirely concerned with the formation 

 of plastids, while the pseudo-chondriome has nothing to do with 

 plastid formation. The plastidome system of the meristematic 

 cells is elongated in shape and the chloro^^lasts and leucoplasts 

 are gradually differentiated from them. It will be remem- 

 bered that the pseudo-chrondriome system is characteristically 

 spherical in shape, and has apparently no function. From the 

 very constant differentiation in staining capacity, morphology 

 and structure, these bodies seem to belong to two totally different 

 categories of cytoplasmic inclusions. 



Patten, Scott and Gatenby, using the Kolatchev technique on 

 the root tips of Vicia faba, have in large measure confirmed 

 Bowen's findings. In the root tips of this plant, as well as in the 

 shoot of Pisuin sativuvi and the root tips of Hyacinthus, they 

 found cells with only mitochondria, and others with osmiophilic 

 platelets alone. The platelets were by far the commonest 

 cytoplasmic inclusions revealed by the Golgi osmic methods. 

 These platelets are very small, but in good preparations they 

 impregnate clearly on a yellowish protoplasmic background. 

 When seen edgeways, they appear as a black line. Observed flat- 

 wise, they are found to possess an osmiophile cortex and a central 

 chromophobe medulla. They rarely form chains, and do not unite 

 when close together. The platelets are very uniform in size, and 

 are not moved by centrifuging. Patten, Scott and Gatenby 

 claimed that the platelets closely resemble the Golgi bodies of 

 the Hemiptera among animals. 



Scott has also discovered Golgi bodies to be present in the root 

 tip of Vicia faba. The material was fixed in Bensley's fluid, and it 

 was discovered that the Golgi apparatus only made its appearance 



