ABSTRACT AND RTIVTEW. 105 



found them there in the brown condition. They may also be- 

 come enclosed inside the cyst by a proper cell- wall of their own. 



The red colouring matter is probably one of the fatty pig- 

 ments (lipochromes). By treatment with sulphuric acid the 

 masses are coloured a bright blue, but the formation of crystals 

 of lipocyanin was not observed. The change of the red to a 

 brown colour possibly points to there being here also two 

 pigments in combination ; the red colour, also, is not always 

 the same, being sometimes rose or carmine, sometimes a brick- 

 red. 



d. The Physodes and the Hyaloplasma. — The physodes 

 are glistening, highly refractile bodies, with sometimes, when 

 of considerable size, a blue sheen. In the cyst they are 

 spherical and arranged in rows, less frequently spindle-shaped, 

 angular, or lobed. They are Archer's " spindles," taken by 

 later writers for nuclei. Archer observed in them a change of 

 form, which, however, has not been seen by the present author. 

 This change of form is probably to be explained, as Archer 

 believed, by supposing that the bodies become viscid under 

 stress of the varying forces exercised upon them from time to 

 time by the protoplasm. 



The smallest of them exhibit no structure of any kind, 

 although the larger show a sort of stratification, there being a 

 central more refractile portion. 



Crato (5) has recently figured similar cell contents as 

 occurring in many Fucaceae, and also in Chlorophycese. To 

 these he has given the name physodes, and has asserted that in 

 many cases they contain phloroglucin. Now by treating 

 Chlamydomyxa with vanillin-hydrochloric acid a red colora- 

 tion, intensified by the addition of sulphuric acid, is found in 

 these bodies, a characteristic test for phloroglucin. A similar 

 reaction can be obtained by treatment with alcoholic piperonal 

 solution and sulphuric acid. With iron chloride they stain a 

 pale greenish blue, and finally, in the living cell they take up 

 very strongly such stains as iodine green, methylene blue, 

 methyl violet, and methyl green, and retain these after the cell 

 has been killed in water or alcohol. 



