ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. G03 



Spirog-yra borysthenica.* — Y. Kasaiiowsky and S. Sminioif describe 

 and tigure Spirof/i/ra borysthenica, a new species from Kie\\- in Russia. 

 It belongs to the Salmacis section of the genus : but the authors create 

 for it a new subsection Ornatis, on account of the mesospore-membrane 

 of the zygote. They show in tabular form the differences between this 

 species and four other species in respect of chlorophyll-bands, spirals, 

 diameter of cells and zygotes, female cells, length of zygote, mesospore- 

 membrane. The species compared are S. calosjoora (as variously defined 

 by Cleve, Petit, Trondle), S. Nawaschinl, S. areolata, S. reticulata. 



Chromatophores of Algae. f — A. Guilliermond discusses the significa- 

 tion of the chromatophore of algse, his object ])eing to determine the 

 relation which exists between the chromatophore of algae and the 

 chloroplast of higher plants, which represents the chromatophore as 

 opposed to the mitochondria. He examined species of Spirof/i/ra, Meso- 

 carpKS, Cladophora, and Desmidie^, and comes to the conclusion that the 

 chromatophore of algae differs in no way in its histo-chemical characters 

 from the chloroplasts of higher plants, and is composed of a substance 

 very nearly allied to that of the mitochondria. This substance shows, 

 however, a much greater resistance to ordinary fixing agents than does 

 that of the mitochondria. The author has also proved in the algag 

 above mentioned the presence in the chromatophores of metachromatic 

 corpuscles, fat globules, and sometimes also other colourable granules. 

 This would show that fat globules and metachromatic corpuscles are 

 always the products of the activity of the chromatophore ; and though 

 found in these algte sometimes outside the chromatophore, they have 

 nevertheless been formed inside it. The chromatophore resembles 

 mitochondria in being a permanent organ of the cell, dividing with the 

 cell-division and being transmitted from cell to cell. Physiologically, 

 it plays the same part as the mitochondria, elaborating the products of 

 secretion of the cell (chlorophyll, starch, fat, metachromatic corpuscles), 

 w^hich are usually the products of the activity of the mitochondria. 

 Thus, having regard principally to the physiological function of the 

 chromatophore, it would seem to be homologous with the chondriome 

 of ordinary cells. Whereas, in the great majority of cells, the chondriome 

 is represented by a very large number of mitochondrial elements dis- 

 seminated in the cytoplasm, it is in algal cells condensed into a special 

 organ uniting in itself all the physiological functions distributed among 

 the different elements of the ordinary chondriome. Finally, the author 

 remarks that if this interpretation be correct it would throw light on 

 certain questions of evolution and the physiological role of mitochondria. 

 It would tend to prove that mitochondria are only formed by division 

 and are incapable of spontaneous origin in the cytoplasm ; also, that 

 they play no role in heredity. It is already a known fact that in certain 

 species of algae, during fertilization, the male chromatophore degenerates 

 after entering the ovum with the cytoplasm, and that the female chro- 

 matophore alone furnishes by division the chromatophores of the resulting 

 cells. 



* Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr., Ixiii. (1913) pp. 137-41 (1 pi. and figs.). 

 t C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxv. (1913) pp. 85-7. 



