314 President's Address. 



rliomhic), or crumpled or wavy rods, like the so-called rods of the 

 waxy coating on Mumcerr; having blunt or pointed ends ; or the 

 productions are long, firm, straight, or coiled needles ; or delicate 

 flexible filaments. No differentiation is observed in these crystal- 

 loidal masses, except occasionally in sonic of the rods, when, owing 

 to a slight condensation of the periphery, a double contoiu' is shown. 



As the rust-brown masses first appear within the periphery of the 

 chlorophyll-corpuscle, they have the appearance of confluent oily 

 drops, in consistence, outline, and movement resembling a volatile 

 rather than a fatty oil. And the subsequent formation from them 

 of the crystalloidal processes probably results from the conversion, 

 at least in part, of the oily substance into resin. The whole of the 

 exuded mass does not assume the crystalloidal form, but there is 

 always a remnant of the original substance left like a mother liquor, 

 out of which the crystalloidal bodies have solidified. There is, 

 then, here a mixture of substances with which the colouring matter 

 of the chlorophyll- corpuscle is in part incorporated, which being 

 insoluble in water, dilute salt solutions, and acids, and completely 

 soluble in alcohol, ether, benzol, bisulphide of carbon, petroleum, 

 volatile oils, &c., must be referred to the group of resins and fats. 

 The colour of the mixture depends upon the modified chlorophyll, 

 for the more highly-developed crystalloidal processes, if exposed for 

 a short time to light, change colour and get lighter, often bleaching 

 slowly from the point backwards, and in this way may become 

 quite colourless. The crystal-like projections and the short rods are 

 often from the first destitute of colour. 



It is that constituent of these extruded masses which forms the 

 crystalloidal bodies, or rather the form in which it pre-exists in the 

 chlorophyll-corpuscle, that is termed hypoclilorin. Is it an inde- 

 pendent constituent of the chlorophyll-corpuscle, or is it derived 

 from the green colouring matter by the action of the acid 1 



Were it a product of the action of the acid on the green colouring 

 matter its presence should be indicated in every clilorophyll-cor- 

 puscle when treated Avith the acid, for there is no reason to doubt 

 that the characters of the chlorophyll-corpuscles in a normal tissue, 

 in one and the same cell at least, are essentially alike. But this is 

 by no means the case. Often the crystalloid bodies develop only 

 upon a few chlorophyll-corpuscles in a cell, and are absent from the 

 others, or they may be entirely absent from one or more cells in a 

 tissue otherwise rich in the substance. Again, in the majority of 

 Algoe where the chlorophyll is attached to masses of various forms, 

 whilst hypochlorin is rarely entirely absent from a cell or from a 

 filament, the amount present varies much both with the season and 

 with the stage of development of the cells. 



