46 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



that galls are normal products of the plants on which they grow, and 

 that these galls, by an evolution of their protoplasm, eventually give 

 birth to animal life. This seems to "out-evolutionize" the most radi- 

 cal evolutionist. 



Mr. Austin describes two new genera of mosses, dedicating one to 

 Capt. J. Donnell Smith and the other to Mr. Eugene A. Rau. Con- 

 siderable space is devoted to botanical news, a department that could 

 be made exceedingly interesting and important in the organ of a large 

 club so centrally located as the Torrey club. We note with pleasure 

 that Mr. W. R. Gerard has been elected assistant editor of the Bulle- 

 tm. 



The Function of Chlorophyll. — One of the most important 

 recent contributions to physiological botany is contained in a recent 

 communication to the Berlin Academy of Sciences, by Dr. Prings- 

 heim, which appears to throw considerable fresh light on the function 

 of chlorophyll in the life of the plant. 



Having been led by previous researches to the conclusion that im- 

 portant results might be obtained by the use of intense light, he com- 

 bined an apparatus by which the object under view should be brightly 

 and constantly illuminated by a strong lens and a heliostat. If in this 

 way an object containing chlorophyll —a moss leaf, fern-proihalium, 

 chara, conferva, or thin section of a leaf of a phanerogam be ob- 

 served, it is seen that great changes are produced in a period varying 

 from three to six or more minutes. 



The first and most striking result is the complete decomposition of 

 the chlorophyll, so that in a few minutes the object appears as if it had 

 been lying for some days in strong alcohol. Although, however, the 

 green color has disappeared, the corpuscles retain their structure essen- 

 tially unaltered. The change then gradually extends to the other 

 constituents of the cell ; the circulation of the protoplasm is arrested ; 

 the threads of protoplasm are ruptured and the nucleus displaced; the 

 primordial utricle contracts and becomes permeable to coloring mat- 

 ters; the turgidity of the cell ceases; and the cell presents, in short, 

 all the phenomena of death. 



That these effects are not due to the action of the high temperature 

 to which the cell is exposed under these circumstances is shown by the 

 fact that they are produced by all the different parts of the visible 

 spectrum. The result is the same whether the light has previously 

 passed through a red solution of iodine in carbon bisulphide, through 

 a blue ammoniacal solution of cupric oxide, or through a green solu- 

 tion of cupric chloride. If the carbon bisulphide solution of iodine 

 be so concentrated that only rays of a greater wave-length than 

 0.00061 mm. can pass through it, these effects are not produced, 

 although about eighty per cent, of the heat of white sunlight is trans- 

 mitted. On the other hand, if the ammoniacal solution of cupric ox- 

 ide be so concentrated that the whole of the rays of a less wave length 

 than 0.00051 ram. are absorbed, a rapid and powerful effect is pro- 



