PLANT CELLS AND LIVING MATTER. 



97 



scribed by authors, especially in growing tissues, as " inter- 

 cellular spores " and " middle lamellse," in the cellulose were 



Fig. 6. — Cells from petiole of Ficus elastica, treated with silver nitrate. 



revealed to be in a number of instances accumulations and fila- 

 ments of living matter wedged in between the " plant cells/' 

 very much like the wedges of bioplasson and the medullary 

 elements which I have found to grow between animal epi- 

 thelia in cases of new growths (" Microscopical Study of 

 Papilloma of the Larynx/' ' Archives of Laryngology/ March, 

 1880). Treatment with the solution of silver nitrate revealed 

 in the darkened substance of the cellulose light spaces occu- 

 pying the position of such wedges. These light spaces sent 

 off com])aratively broad offshoots parallel to the inner surfaces 

 of the cellulose frame, and innumerable delicate light off- 

 shoots from both the central space and the broad offshoots 

 traversed the brown cellulose in uninterrupted connec- 

 tion with the delicate light reticulum seen here and there 

 within the so-called " plant cell." The appearance of the 

 silver-stained cellulose frame in a portion of such a specimen 

 is accurately reproduced in fig. 6, and the results obtained in 



VOL. XXIII. NEW SKR. G 



