THE CHXOEOPHYLL-BODY. 39 



arise in the homogeneons solid substance of the chlorophyll bodies." 

 They are at first visible as points, gradually increase in size, and finally 

 may so completely fill up the space of the chlorophyll grain that the 

 green substance is represented only by a fine coating on the matm-e starch 

 grain ; even this coating may, under certain circumstances, disappear." 



The history in brief of the chlorophyll body, and, allowing for varia- 

 tions, the result of varying conditions and circumstances, would seem to 

 be that the starch granule is first separated from the protoplasm bv the 

 ordinary vital processes ; and then, according to conditions and circum- 

 stances, either becomes pigmented and assumes the condition of chloro- 

 phyll, or else remains, as it does usually when excluded from hght, an 

 unpigmented granular body, and, growing by intussusception into the 

 perfect, enveloped starch grain, with its ordinary physical characters of 

 hilum and concentiic markings, and having in this state its known and 

 recognised chemical characteristics. This view receives some confirma- 

 tion fi'om the following passage from Rosanoff. * " The formation of the 

 grains of the chlorophyll is not always contemporaneous with that of its 

 coloui"ing matter; they may be at first colourless, (as m Vaiicheria and 

 Bnjopsis, according to Hofmeister.) or yellow (in the case of leaves of 

 Monocotyledons or Dicotyledons imperfectly exposed to light or in the 

 process of development,) and may afterwards become green." 



Of course it must not be assumed by anj' means that no pigmented 

 red, (EhodospermeEe, &c.,) gi'een, or yellow matter occurs except in the 

 form of regular graniiles, for amj'laceous products are known and 

 acknowledged to be often amoi-phous. The acknowledged chlorophyll 

 pigmented matters and particles too are also known to occur sometimes 

 in "bands, stars, or irregular masses." In fact there is no limit to 

 this informality, variation, or irregularity ; moreover, hght itself can be 

 dispensed with in some cases. In Angiosperms hght is understood to be 

 essential to pigmentation or chlorisation, but fern-leaves and the 

 cotyledons of G\Tnnosperms ■will become pigmented without hght. 



The conclusions which I first raade known in 1866, and which I may 

 here partly reproduce, wex-e that the almost imiversal green of nature is 

 essentially amylaceous, and can, therefore, supply fuel, at least in the 

 matter of food, to animals. Though partly decolourised in dried grass, 

 the same amylaceous principle is yet present. The nutritive properties 

 of hay, which can of itself support animal life, can scarcely depend on 

 the cellular tissue alone, and certainly not exclusively on the small propor- 

 tion of nitrogen contained, nor on the fraits which, in the minor grasses, 

 are insignificant. On the other hand, amylaceous matters are known to be 

 intensely nutritive, as affording one main element of animal food, and 

 not only so, but those parts of plants in which this proximate principle 

 is concentrated are nutritive in proportion to the amount of that 

 concentration. 



THE EAINF.^L OF 1877. 



BY W, J. HARRISON, F.G.S. 



Incomplete and imperfect as it must needs be from the early date of 

 its pubhcation. and from the fact that our staff of observers is as yet not 

 fully organised, still the main features of the Rainfall of the j)ast year in the 

 Midland counties may be gathered from the table which we print below. 

 In it the stations are grouped in counties, and the fall at a few other 

 localities is given at the end for the purpose of comparison. For the 



* See translation Sachs, page 49. 



