128 Mr J. Rattray on the Oil Bodies of Jungermanniece. 



formed. The sporogonial cells now elongate, but the oil bodies do 

 not change in form or number, although the starch disappears entirely 

 at elongation. This also happens in Blepharostoma trichophylla, &c. 



4. Plants of Mastigohryitm trilohahim, Plagiocliila asplenioides, 

 Fegatella conica, &c., kept in darkness for three months, were 

 found to have oil bodies present in their leaves that had formed in 

 the darkness, and previously formed oil bodies still persisted. 



With reference to these positions it may be noted — 



1. That if these oil bodies be formed out of glucose, they have 

 an indirect relation to protoplasm itself, inasmuch as glucose can 

 only exist where a protoplasmic basis has previously been, and 

 that they are accordingly ultimately protoplasmic products. 



2. That their persistence in the cells of a developing sporo- 

 gonium stalk is to be expected, as sufficient starch which has 

 not undergone fatty transformation (assuming that glucose does 

 become converted into oil bodies) is present for purposes of growth 

 without drawing on the oily reserve. 



3. That the great numbers and large volume of some of these 

 oil bodies, such as those of Radida complanata, is a priori opposed 

 to the idea that they represent so many excretory calculi of no 

 assimilative value to the plant. 



4. That the early appearance of so many oil droplets in the cells, 

 as opposed to a late casual appearance in but a few cells, is, as has 

 been suggested by Professor Dickson, also opposed to the view that 

 they are excretory, no less than the fact that in some of the emulsi- 

 form oil bodies rapid movements are to be found. 



5. That their occurrence in leaves formed in darkness may be 

 accounted for by reserve assimilative materials stored up in the cells 

 previous to exposure to this condition, and probably subjection to 

 starvation, such as impoverished soil or lack of water, would result 

 in proving that before death supervened these oil bodies would be 

 used up as reserve food supplies. 



6. That the hyphae of a fungus were often observed in specimens of 

 Karitia trichoynanis examined from the Moss House of the Botanic 

 Garden ; and, in close proximity to these hyphae, I have noted that 

 some of the bluish oil bodies were found in a broken-up condition, as 

 if they had been partially removed by the adjoining hypha — minute 

 oily droplets being at the same time found in these fungoid filaments. 



Bibliography. — Anatomisch. Pliysiolog. Untersuchungen uber 

 Haplomitrium Hookeri in Verltdlg^d. Leopold. Carolin. Akad., 1843, 

 Ed. xii. Abth. i. p. 286 ff. ; Ueher die Zellenhldschen der Lebermoose, 

 1857, p. 11 ; Die Oelkorper der Lebermoose, Flora oder allgemeine 

 hotanische Zeitung herausgegeben von der Komgl. Bayer, hotanischen 

 GeseUsdiaft in Begctisburg, 1874. 



