FRESHWATER LIFE. 37 



well represented through untold ages from Cambrian times to the present 

 day. Their remains, especially of the Ostracoda and Phyllopoda, occur 

 in all formations, and in some are so abundant as to give a peculiar 

 fohated character to the rock containing them. 



A few books of reference may not be unwelcome to the student. 

 Before all the very complete manual of the British Enlomostraca by Dr. 

 Baird, published by the Ray Society ; then the portions bearing upon the 

 subject in Professor Huxley's" Anatomy of the Invertebrate Animals," and 

 Professor Nicholson's " Zoology and Palaeontology ;" lastly, the splendid 

 monographs on the fossils of the group by Professor Kupert Jones, the 

 Rev. H. W. Crosskey, and others, published b}^ the Palasontological 

 Society. Vv^ith such help, the systematic study of our old friends, the 

 so-called water-fleas, will be found replete with interest. 



THE CHLOEOPHYLL-BODY AND ITS EELATION 

 TO STAKCH. 



BY WILLIAM HINDS, ESQ., M.D., ETC., ETC., 

 PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, QUEEn's COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM. 



In the year 1865 I read a paper to the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, an abstract of which was printed in 

 their Transactions, to show the relation which existed between the 

 chlorophyll-body and the starch granule. At the present time the views 

 of some 01 the most eminent botanists of Germany appear to me to be, to 

 a certain extent, approaching to the conclusions to which I have refen-ed. 

 What these conclusions are it is my purpose to show. 



If we refer to the great English botanists of twenty years ago, we 

 shall find them describing chlorophyll as a "vital secretion" sui generis 

 or independent body. 



One of our gi-eat authors of that period, who wrote on this subject, 

 thus expresses himself in his Introduction to Botany* : — " Chlorophyll is 



a ' \dtal secretion,' and comprises ' coloured granules ' of a ' spheroidal 

 and irregular iigure.' They ' consist of a semifluid, gelatinous substance, 

 which seems to be a coagulum of the fluid contents of the cells.' " 



Nageli states that the parent cells of chlorophyll " are only half the 

 size of starch, and that " they occur in company with starch grains." 



In 1851 Mr. J. S. Quekett delivered, at the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England, a courso of lectures on Histology, and on the 

 subject of chlorophyll occurs the following: — "The green colour, so 

 universally present in plants, is due to a more or less sohd material 

 contained in cells, and termed chlorophylle, or green vegetable wax." It 

 consists of minute spherical or oval particles. 



Dr. J. H. Balfour, in his Manual of Botany, 1860, page 11, states that 

 " Chlorophylle, or the green colouring matter of plants, floats in the 

 fluid of cells, accompanied by starch grains. It differs from starch in 

 being confined to the superficial parenchjTiia, and in being principally 

 associated with the i)henomena of active vegetable life. It has a granular 

 form, is soluble in alcohol, appears to be analogous to wax in its composi- 

 tion, and is developed under the agency of light." 



* Lindley, fourth edition, page 138. 



