INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 987 



lignin, suber, protein compounds, protoplasm, starch, sugar, oil, resin, 

 &c. ; tlie vegetable salts, colouring substances, &c. 



Red Pigment of the Flowers of the Peony.* — J. B. Scbnetzler 

 has examined the red colouring-matter of the peony, and finds that 

 the red alcoholic solution assumes, on evaporation in the air, a bea;i- 

 tiful amaranth-red colour. The dry residue is of the same colour, 

 even under tlie influence of direct sunlight. Calcium oxalate changes 

 the purple-red colour of the alcoholic solution into a pure fiery red. 

 If a very dilute solution of calcium carbonate is carefully poured, in 

 small quantities, on to the red alcoholic solution, the colour changes 

 successively into purple, purple-violet, blue, green, and yellow. The 

 green colour has a red tinge in transmitted sunlight. When exposed 

 to light, the green colour passes into yellow ; and this yellow colour 

 is not changed by acid or alkaline reagents ; while the green colour is 

 changed back by acid reagents into red. 



The reagents employed in these experiments are substances which 

 occur abundantly in the living plant, or, like calcium carbonate, are 

 taken up by it. If a solution of ferro-ferrid-oxide sulphate is added 

 to the dilute red alcoholic solution, a blackish-blue precipitate is pro- 

 duced, showing the jiresence of a substance belonging to the tannin- 

 group. This occurs also as an accompaniment of the red pigment of 

 the rose and Hibes sanguineum, and appears to have some genetic 

 connection with these colouring-matters. 



More than a hundred red, violet, and blue flowers gave similar 

 results when treated with the same reagents. In all there is a 

 chromogen which is soluble in alcohol, and is coloured red by acid, 

 purple-red, violet, blue, green, or yellow by alkaline reagents. 



The Cell as an Element. — See M. P. Van Tieghem's paper on 

 ' Social Bacteria,' infra, Fungi. 



B. CRYPTOGAMIA. 



Cryptogamia Vascularia. 



Development of the Sporang-ium in Vascular Cryptogams.f — 

 K. Goebel has closely investigated the comparative history of develop- 

 ment of the sporangium in vascular cryptogams, with a view of show- 

 ing the close analogy displayed to tliut of the pollen-sacs and ovules 

 (microsporangia and macrosporangia) of flowering plants. Previous 

 observers have, for the most part, stated that the spores of vascular 

 cryptogams result from a sporogenons tissue formed by irregular cell- 

 division within the sporangium. The present writer asserts, on the 

 other hand, that in vascular cryptogams, as in phanerogams, the spore- 

 forming tissue can always be traced back to a single cell, or a row or 

 layer of cells, which can, at a very early period, be distinguished, by 

 the nature of its contents, from the remaining cellular tissue ; and 

 that tlie sporogenons tissue results from the perfectly regular division 

 of this primary cell, row, or layer of cells, to which Goebel applies 

 the term arrhespore. 



* ' Hot. Contnilbl.,' i. (1880) p. 682. 



t ' Bot. Zeit.,' xxxviii. (1880) pp. 545-52, ^^€A-7l. 



