ON PLASMOLYSIS. 151 



On Plasmolysis and its bearing upon the Rela- 

 tions between Cell Wall and Protoplasm. 



By 



F. O. Bovver, Ifl.A., 



Lecturer on Botany at the Normal School of Science, South Kensington. 

 (From the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Gardens, Kew.) 



With Plate VIIL 



It is not surprising that, after devoting their efforts for so 

 long to the study of the nucleus, botanists should again turn 

 their attention to the cell wall and its relation to the proto- 

 plasm. It was only to be expected that by the application of 

 those accurate methods of study, elaborated during investiga- 

 tions of the nucleus, to the formation and origin of the cell 

 wall, new results would be obtained. Such expectation has 

 been amply justified by the works of Dippel, Schmitz, and 

 Strasburger. The mode of increase of substance of cell walls 

 by apposition, and more especially the mode of formation of 

 walls in the first instance in cell division by the lateral coales- 

 cence of " microsomata,'^' leads naturally to the supposition 

 that if there be such a genetic connection between the cell 

 wall and the protoplasmic body, it would also be possible to 

 demonstrate that the physical connection between them is very 

 close. Further, the idea that cells may be connected with one 

 another by delicate threads of protoplasm, which keep up a 

 protoplasmic continuity through their cell walls, also presents 

 itself as a natural corollary on these observations. 2 Such con- 



^ Strasburger, 'Ueber den Ban uud das Wachsthum der Zellhaiite,' p. 174. 



2 Cf., Strasburger, 1. c, p. 246. 



