NOTES ON THE OHROMATOLOGY OF ANTHEA CEREUS. 575 



Sorby means by " blue " and " yellow chlorophyll " and 

 " chlorofucin," and the object of this paper is to clear up this 

 confusion as regards chlorofucin more especially, also to prove 

 that the chlorofucin and its accompanying pigments are due 

 entirely to the " yellow cells." 



It is necessary here to recall the experiment of Geddes^ to 

 mind. Geddes found that by exposing Anthea cereus to 

 sunlight he got as much as 33 — 38 per cent, of oxygen, and he 

 found starch and cellulose in the " yellow cells." He tries to 

 reconcile this fact with the statement made by Krukenberg, 

 who failed to get any evidence of the evolution of oxygen, by 

 supposing that Krukenberg must have examined a different 

 variety of Anthea; and he further observes: "Thus, then, 

 the colouring matter of Anthea, described as chlorophyll by 

 Lankester, has really been mainly derived from that of the 

 endodermal algse of the variety plumosa, which predominates 

 at Naples, while the Anthea-green of Krukenberg must mainly 

 consist of the green pigment of the ectoderm, since the Trieste 

 variety evidently does not contain algse in any great quantity. 

 But since the Naples variety, contrary to the opinion of the 

 brothers Hertwig,^ does contain a certain amount of ordinary 

 green pigment, and since the Trieste variety is tolerably sure 

 to contain some algse, Heider having indeed shown the presence 

 of yellow cells in Sagartia, both spectroscopists have then 

 been operating on a mixture of two wholly distinct pigments — 

 one vegetable, the other animal — diatom-yellow and Anthea- 

 green." In other words. Prof. Lankester's pigment would be 

 " diatom-yellow " and Krukenberg's ^'Anthea-green." But I 

 believe this theory will not account for the above-mentioned 

 discrepancy, as I find a chlorophyll as well as a 

 chlorofucin in extracts of the "yellow cells," and I 

 shall endeavour to show that out of these yellow cells one extract 

 may contain more of one coloured constituent, another more of 

 another; and this result does not prove that one extract contains 



1 'Nature,' 26th Jan., 1882, pp. 303—305, and 'Proc. Roy. Soc.,' Edin,, 

 vol. xi, 1881, 1882, p. 377—396. 

 ^ Loc. cit. 



