16 COI.orUIN<i MATTEIt ASSOCIATKU WITH ClI t.UliOlU YI,I, 



exhibit Oio tliiii sc^pta, and in all respects the structure of the ordinary 

 form of Jujlaiis 7'egia, Linn., of which this is doubth'ss only a 

 singular monstrosity. Except in size and tho texture of the shell, I 

 do not find anything to distinguish the two kinds of nut sent, and this 

 tends to show that too much stress must not be laid on size, or I may 

 add form either, in attempting to discriminate spccii's in this genus. 

 M. ^laximowicz has himself, whilst describing and figuring with his 

 nsual care tho Eastern Asiatic forms he had examined, explained that 

 their specific distinctness is at present uncertain.* Dr. Bretschneider 

 says this curious fruit is cultivated in the mountains to the uoj-th-east 

 of Peking. Neither London in the " Arboretum, "f where thirteen 

 pages are devoted to tho Walnut, nor M. Cassimir Do Candolle in his 

 " Mcmoire sur les Juglandees,"J or in the monograph in the 16th 

 volume of tho " Prodroraus," make any allusion to a variety or mon- 

 strosity in which the epicarp is suppressed. There is no reference to 

 such a deformity or abortion in ]\[oquin-Taiidou's " Tdratologie 

 vcgetale " ; nor, indeed, though I do not pretend to have made a 

 thorough search, have I been able to find a parallel instance mentioned, 

 of any single genus, in tho books to which I have access. It seems, 

 therefore, worth putting on record, if only for its singularity. 



ON TEE COLOURING MATTER ASSOCIATED WITH 



CHLOROPHYLL. 



By H. C. Soeby, F.R.S. & Pres. R.M.S. 



Since my attention was first called to the abstract of Pringslieim's 

 paper on chlorophylline chromules published in the Jouriuil of 

 Botany (1875, pp. 114-120), I have been so much occupied witli other 

 engagements that I have not until now been able to write a short 

 defence of the part I have taken in this subject. 



According to the above-named abstract at p. 120, Pringsheim says 

 that iie " can still less agree with Sorby respecting tlie several chro- 

 mules which he alleges to have obtained from various plants, and 

 which he regards as distinct and undeconiposed substances pre-exist- 

 ing in the plants and capable of definite analysis. It is certain that 

 many of these chromules must have; been deprived of their original 

 spectrum characteristics by the treatment to which they were sub- 

 jected. In the determination of the sp(;ctra, moreover, the influence 

 of the solvents, that of concentration, and of the thickness of the Livers, 

 seem to have been equally disregarded. Sorby has nowhere stated with 

 reference to his yellow chromules, to Avhich ho ascribes two separate 

 bands in the blue, to what extent the various positions of tlie bands 

 are influenced by the solvents, nor how they depend on the thickness 



» Mel. biolog. .Vcrid. St. Pctersl)., viii., G37. 

 t Art). .!t Frnt. Urit., iii., 1423-35. 

 X Ann. vSc. Nat., •!« slt., xviii., .'J s(jq. 



