686 SUMMAKY OF QUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



BOTANY. 



GENERAL, 



Including the Anatomy and Physiology of Seed Plants. 



Cytology, 

 including' Cell-Contents. 



Affinity of Colouring-matter of Blood and Chlorophyll.* — M. L. 

 Marchlewski claims to have discovered a new proof of the aifinity of the 

 colouring-matter of blood and chlorophyll. The success attained by 

 Laidlaw, Zaleski, and Forscher in the production of h^emin from ha^mato- 

 porphyrin, and of an iron compound of the formula Cg^HggO^N^FeCl 

 from mesoporphyrin, together with the complete agreement of character 

 in the porphyrin of blood and pliylloporphyrin, suggested to the author 

 that pliylloporphyrin would give a similar iron compound to that derived 

 from h^emin. By proceeding in a manner analogous to that pursued by 

 Zaleski in his experiment, the author has been successful in producing 

 such a compound, and it so strongly resembles that derived from hsemin 

 that it may be regarded as additional proof of the affinity of the 

 colouring-matter of blood and of chlorophyll. 



Analogy of Plant and Animal Cell-structure.f — M. v. Derschau 

 has studied FritiJlaria imperialis and Lilium Martagon with special re- 

 ference to the analogy of the cell-structure of plants and animals. The 

 author is of opinion that the development of the definitive nucleus from 

 the linin plexus is due to the transformation of linin into chromatin, 

 whereby another substance, " chromoplasma," appears in the nuclear 

 body. The repeated nuclear and cell-division in plants indicates that 

 regeneration of the hereditary substance must take place, and this must 

 be at the expense of the Hnin, which in its turn is renewed at the 

 expense of the surrounding cytoplasm. Deficiency of chromatin may so 

 influence the nuclei of adjacent tissues that they will supply chromatin 

 direct to the deficient tissues. Spindle-formation is associated with an 

 extranuclear centrosphere, which contains the archosomes ; the latter 

 are of especial importance in the orientation and transport of the 

 chromosomes. The centrosphere is amoeboid, and its morphological 

 transformation during the activity of the archosomes strongly reminds 

 one of an Amoeba. 



Hybridisation and Germ-cells of (Enothera.J — R. R. Gates con- 

 tinues his investigations upon GJnothera mutants, and finds that there 

 are 20-21 chromosomes in plants of the Lamarclnana hybrid, whilst in 

 pure 0. Lamarclciana and 0. lata there are 14 chromosomes, the reduced 



* Bull. Internat. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, ii. (1907) pp. 57-9. 

 \ Bot. Centralbl., xxii. (1907) pp. 167-90 (1 pi. and 2 figs.). 

 X Bot. Gazette, xliv. (1907) pp. 1-21 (3 figs.). 



