Table of Contents 



1 . The Parent Plant 1 



1.1: The Knowledge of Colchicum in Ancient Civilizations 1 



1.2: Botanical Studies of Colchicum From Dioscorides to 



rwentieth-Century Investigators 4 



1.3: Medical Applications of Colchicine 11 



1.4: Chemical Studies of the Pure Substance Colchicine 14 



1.5: New Biological Uses for Colchicine 16 



2. Nucleus and Chromosomes 24 



2.1 : Original Concepts 24 



2.2: The Original Statements 26 



2.3: Prophase 31 



2.4: Colchicine Melaphase 35 



2.5: Processes Leading to Interphase 50 



2.6: Alterations of Chromosome Structure 52 



2.7: Reiteration of the C-mitosis 55 



3. Spindle and Cytoplasm 65 



3.1 : Colchicine and Spindle Fibers 65 



3.2: Spindle Inhibition 68 



3.3: Destruction of the Spindle Fibers 69 



3.1: Changes in Spindle Form 78 



3.5: The Arrested Metaphase and Spindle Mechanisms 81 



3.6: Spindle Disturbance and Cytological Standards 86 



3.7: Cytoplasmic Division 86 



3.8: Reversible Characteristics of the Spindle 91 



3.9: Summary 98 



4. Cellular Growth 102 



4.1 : Colchicine Tumors in Roots, Hypocotyl, and Stems 103 



4.2: Effects of Colchicine on Pollen Tubes, Hair Cells, 



and Other Parts of Plants 107 



4.3: Colchicine-Meiosis and Gametophytic Development 110 



4.4: Microbiological Data '-0 



4.5: Differentiation Processes 125j-v 



4.6: Metabolism and Colchicine 131 



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