124 M. L. Garreau on the Nitrogenous Matter of Plants. 



cular apparatus in surrounding cells, appears to us a creation of 

 the imagination misled by microscopical appearances — a resur- 

 rection of hypotheses of complicated organization in the economy 

 of the simplest organisms, such as modern research has demo- 

 lished in the case of the Infusoria. In many respects, indeed, 

 the descriptions of M. Garreau might pass for a rechauffe of 

 Schultze's romantic hypothesis of an all-wide-pervading system 

 of laticiferous vessels throughout vegetable tissue. 



Yet, though dissenting from M. Garreau's interpretation of 

 appearances he met with, we readily admit his general accuracy 

 as an observer. We receive his account of cord-like processes 

 extending from the nucleus to the primordial utricle of the cell, 

 of their variability in dimensions and in their degree of tension, 

 and of the centrifugal and less active centripetal currents of 

 granules passing through them ; but we discover in all this no 

 evidence of vessels ministering to a circulation properly so-called. 

 On the other hand, we find a precise analogy to it in the internal 

 organization of the animals of the class Rhizopoda — the Amce- 

 bese, Foraminifera, &c. In the thin filiform processes of the 

 Foraminifera we observe a streaming outwards of granules from 

 the central mass of sarcode, followed by a backward current to- 

 wards it, and at the same time a variability in the volume, ten- 

 sion, and direction of those processes. In these phenomena, 

 however, naturalists do not recognize the existence of a vascular 

 system, but see in them only the illustration of vital action, or 

 the results of the nutritive force, operating as an attracting 

 agent and establishing currents in the nutrient juices of the 

 organism. 



We would apply these views in the interpretation of the struc- 

 tural arrangements seen by M. Garreau. The nucleus doubtless 

 represents the germinating and actively nutrient centre of the 

 cell — the formative material, — whilst the surrounding cell-wall is 

 the completed or formed matter, added to and advanced in 

 growth so long as the nucleus retains its formative energy and 

 power of assimilating new material from the inorganic matters 

 reaching it through the osmotic action of the cell- wall. As such 

 an active agent in nutrition, the nucleus operates as a central 

 force, whilst the process of growth of the cell-wall, or chiefly of 

 the primordial utricle, establishes nutritive currents which will 

 be directed towards it. Space compels us to curtail our remarks 

 on this physiological subject, which has been well worked out 

 by Dr. Beale in his recently published lectures, originally deli- 

 vered before the College of Physicians of London. 



We will, however, venture an observation on the enveloping 

 wall of the nucleus, which M. Garreau appears to have demon- 

 strated, by asking, How far do those apparent membranes owe 



