C(J8 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



present. The grains contain hemialbumose in considerable quantity. 

 The grains of Ricinus present a complex structure. They consist of a 

 mass of grouud-substauce of proteid nature, enclosing a crystalloid of 

 proteid substance and a globoid which consists of inorganic matter. 

 The groxmd-substance is found to be composed, like the grain of the 

 lupin, of the two globulins and of hemialbumose. The chemical 

 nature of the crystalloid is not so clearly made out. It is slowly 

 soluble in 10 per cent. NaCl solution, and readily soluble in 20 per 

 cent., or in saturated NaCl solution after treatment with alcohol. 

 The crystalloids of several plants were investigated with the view of 

 ascertaining their relative solubility in solutions of this salt. Those 

 of Viola elatior and of Limim usitatisshnum were found to resemble 

 those of Bicinus in this respect ; those of BefthoUetia and of Cacurhita 

 are readily soluble in 10 per cent, and saturated NaGl solutions ; 

 those of Mtisa ensete and HilUi, and those of Sparganium ramosum are 

 either insoluble or only partially soluble in these solutions. 



The points of more general interest are the action of alcohol in 

 promoting the solution of the crystalloids of Bicinus in 20 per cent, 

 and in saturated solutions of NaCl, and the fact that long-continued 

 exposure to alcohol does not render the vegetable globulins insoluble 

 in these solutions. 



The author finally expresses his opinion that the caseins which 

 Eitthausen has extracted from various seeds consist to a considerable 

 extent of precij)itated hemialbumose. 



" Cistoma." * — Under this term Gasparrini formerly described a 

 membranous sac which he claimed to have observed beneath the 

 semihmar guard-cells of the stoma, continuous with the cuticle of 

 the epidermis and of the guard-cells. Other botanists not having 

 confii-med this observation, A. Mori has endeavoured to set the ques- 

 tion at rest by a very careful examination, chiefly made on the 

 stomata of Cereus peruiianus, Ficus elastica. Yucca aloeifolia, Aloe 

 vulgaris, Euphorbia officinarum, Anthurium Scherzerianum, Agave ame- 

 ricana, and other plants. His observations tend to the conclusion 

 that the description of the " cistoma " is founded on a mistake. He 

 finds the cells at the bottom of the stomatic cavity destitute of 

 any cuticular lining, the walls of these cells consisting entirely of 

 cellulose, and being in immediate contact with the air which pene- 

 trates the stomatic cavity. The cuticle which is continuous with the 

 superficies of the epidermis invests the stomatic cavity only. 



Apical Growth with several Apical Cells.! — Various authors 

 have ascribed a number of apical cells to the roots of Marattiaceae 

 and Ophioglossacese, the apices of the stems of Selaginella, and the 

 branches of Fucaccfe. 



According to the accurate definition of the apical cell given by 

 Schwendener, only a single or several equivalent cells can be so 

 regarded which are grouped immediately around the centre of the 

 apical point, and which maintain this position dm-ing the apical 

 growth. But some of the daughter-cells which result from the 



* ' Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital.,' xii. (1880) p. 148. 

 t ' SB. Ges. iiaturf. Frciinrl. Berlin,' 1879. 



