Oil Bodies of the Jarigcrinanniece. 125 



greatly in appearance, yet after such treatment tliey are found to 

 persist in the liquid state. 



(e) The oil bodies are not a balsam, because on removal of the 

 ethereal oil a solid resin would remain which is not found. 



(/) Pfeffer has extracted fatty oil from Mastigohnjum trilobafimi. 



((j) Treatment with sugar solution or glycerine causes the volume 

 to lessen and the outline to become wavy. By again adding water 

 these changes are reversed, e.g., in JVardia scaJaris. 



(h) The membranes left behind after solution of the fat are 

 albuminous, being insoluble in dilute alkalis, acids, and in boiling 

 water. The oil body too is not entirely made up of pure oil, iuas- 

 much as a small amount of insoluble residue remains after the 

 action of alcohol containing corrosive sublimate, an insoluble 

 Hg-compound being formed. Similarly the divisional walls in 

 compound oil bodies also contain proteinaceous matter. 



The slight divergences to be seen on treatment of different oil bodies 

 with the same reagent are due either to a variability in the quantity 

 of albumen present, or to a difference in the nature of the fat. 



The form of the oily droplets occurring inside such oil bodies as 

 those of Eadula is rounded, but the oil bodies as a whole may be 

 ellipsoid or oval, their form being due primarily to the shape of the cell 

 lumen in which they appear, and secondarily to the proteinaceous 

 envelope that invests them, this envelope being of sufficient resistance 

 to retain the original form of the oil body, even after the droplets have 

 been removed by ether or other reagents; adhesion to the plastic 

 protoplasm of the cell also tends to modify their general outline. 



Again potassium-phosphate is a solvent for albuminous substances, 

 and according as it is present in greater or less amount, the oil bodies 

 are more or less speedily acted on by other reagents. 



(i) The result of the action of potash on Ilastigohryum or 

 Nardia indicates the fact that these oil bodies are not composed of 

 pure fat. This reagent produces vaouolation and dimness in the 

 oil drops, a result attributable to the swelling and solution of foreign 

 constituents present in the oil bodies. 



{k) If specimens be dried, the oil bodies diminish in size, if again 

 moistened they resume their original magnitude. Herbarium speci- 

 mens may be kept for several years (7-10), and still show traces 

 of these oil bodies ; after a time they are absorbed by cell wall and 

 cell contents, their long preservation proving their small volatility. 



6. No trace of tannic acid is to be detected in the oil bodies of 

 Radula or Nardia. 



7. They are not doubly refractive. 



In Marchantiea)* the following leading points are to be noted : 



* Pfeffer, lot: cit. 



