ABBEY, ON ORGANIC STRUCTURE. 271 
The “formed matter” is equally affected by acid, alkaline, 
and neutral solutions of the dyeing agent. 
Having thus drawn attention to the merits of the blue dye, 
I shall henceforth, in order to avoid risk of confusion, speak 
only of carmine and magenta. 
Since magenta is incapable of dyeing either cellulose or 
*verminal matter,’ unless with the aid of mordants, but has 
a special affinity for the secondary layers, such as those con- 
stituting spiral fibre and woody tissue, it is evident that the 
components of the typical cell may be made to present three 
conditions of colour, viz., enumerating from without inwards, 
(1) unstained—cell-wall; (2) stained with magenta—spiral 
fibre; (3) stained with carmme—“ germinal matter.” It is 
also seen that the generally accepted statement, to the effect 
that the secondary layers consist of cellulose, as does the 
cell-wall, requires, to say the least, considerable modification. 
It is, perhaps, strange that this statement should have passed 
with so little question, seeing that, as a rule, the cellulose 
reaction with sulphuric acid and iodine is confessedly only 
to be obtained from such structures by means of a “ pre- 
liminary treatment,’ such as boiling with nitric acid or 
caustic potash. Surely this is much akin to saying that the 
reactions of sulphate of copper can only be procured from 
metallic copper by means of a “preliminary” treatment 
with sulphuric acid. If, by an extravagant figure of speech, 
sulphate of copper may be said to be a mode of the metal, 
then perhaps the secondary layer may be said to be a mode 
of cellulose. 
Before proceeding further, I ought to premise that this 
article should be looked upon as based on phenomena 
observed in the vegetable kingdom, my very incomplete 
researches having only reached so far over the frontier as to 
attain the probability of the universality of the deductions 
resulting from them. It will, of course, be borne in mind 
that, in the animal kingdom, similar investigations have been 
much more fully carried out by Dr. Beale. 
Placing our matter before us in the form of the ideal cell 
already spoken of, it will be proper to leave the consideration 
of the secondary layer until we have worked up to it from 
the fons el origo, which, so far as we are concerned, is the 
“‘ germinal matter.” 
With all diffidence, I venture to suggest that the term 
“primordial utricle” should be discontinued. Its meaning 
has evidently become so capricious as to render it perhaps 
worse than useless as the sign of a precise idea. I am not 
