Stockard : Nectar-glands of Vjcja Faba 259 



Torrey studied the changes accompanying the secretion of 

 diastase in maize and barley. He found as I do that the secretion 

 was intermittent, but held the opinion that the secretion-material 

 was given out as granules from the nucleus through breaks in its 

 wall. The nucleus according to Torrey gradually became loaded 

 with granular material and finally stained a uniform black, the 

 presence of the granules being recognized only by its corrugated 

 edge. The pressure finally bursts the nuclear membrane and the 

 granules stream out in rows, collecting later near the upper, or 

 outer, surface of the cell. This is quite a different process from 

 that recorded by most other writers, and certainly no such nuclear 

 changes occur in the gland which I have studied. Later Reed 

 ('04) has worked on the same material and reached entirely con- 

 trary conclusions. In maize he fails to find any indications of 

 granules being given out directly through the nuclear membrane. 



Lloyd ('oi) investigated the nectar-glands occurring on the 

 leaves of the common brake, Pteridiuin. The position of this 

 gland is similar to that of the one under consideration, and he sug- 

 gested as the possible function of such organs that the actively 

 secreted sugar may act as a carrier for some other substance in the 

 nature of an excretion. Bonnier had shown that other substances 

 than the secretion-products were thrown off in small quantities 

 from several glands. Lloyd attributed to the cells of the peri- 

 cycle the power of passing the soluble carbohydrates from the 

 moving sap into the gland, and thus accounted for the greater de- 

 velopment of the pericycle. These pericycle cells contain no 

 chlorophyl, and I should rather think that they are actually active 

 in secretion or, in other words, are truly a part of the gland itself ; 

 such a view would account equally as well for their greater de- 

 velopment in the glandular area. 



A felt of dark-colored fungal hyphae was in some cases ob- 

 served on the surface of the Pteridium -glands. I have also found 

 a fungus growth not uncommon on the older glands of Vicia. 

 Lloyd offers the apposite suggestion that the nectaral surface is a 

 constant infection-point, the sugary fluid acting as a nutrient 

 medium. 



In the case of the nectar-gland under consideration, one is 

 forced to choose the position that the nucleus takes an important 



