President's Address. 315 



This sporadic distribution of the hypochloriu, while it indicates 

 tlie existence of this substance as a general constituent of the 

 chlorophyll-corpuscles, independent of the colouring matter, points 

 also to its function as a formative material, like starch and oil, in 

 the chlorophyll-corpuscle, and its detection will depend upon whether 

 it has accumulated or been used up in the chlorophyll-corpuscle ; 

 the amount discoverable at any time representing excess of supply 

 over demand at that particular moment. 



In plants -with chlorophyU-bands or plates, further evidence of 

 the presence of hypochlorin as a distinct and independent body is 

 alforded by definite anatomical relationships of the crystalloid out- 

 growths to the chlorophyll-masses. In Sjnrogyra, for example, they 

 a^jpear at widely and almost equally distant points on the edge or 

 middle Hue of the bauds. The same is observed in those (Edu- 

 goniece that possess chlorophyll-bands, and in Lh-apurnaldia the 

 crystalloids, always few in number, occur on the crossing chloro- 

 phyll-bands. In all cases, too, they appear preferably at the peri- 

 phery of the amylum-bodies in the bands, and before starch is 

 visible in these. So universal is this that any spot where hypo- 

 chlorin is observed, not in relation to an amylum-body may be 

 assumed to be a seat of election for one. The constancy of the 

 appearance of hypochlorin on the periphery of the amylum-bodies, 

 suggests a genetic connection between them, and seems to indicate 

 that hypochloriu plays an important part in the nutritive function 

 of green cells. 



An anatomical fact, liitherto um'ccognised in the organisation of 

 Spirogi/ra, may here be noticed. The threads of protoplasm ex- 

 tending outwards from the central plasma mass in each cell do not, 

 as was supposed, end in the general protoplasmic lining of the cell 

 wall, but each passes directly or by its branches to the internal 

 surface of a chlorophyU-band, and there dilates in a trumpet-like 

 manner, and grasps, as it were, an amylum-body. If, as sometimes 

 occurs, there is no amylum-body visible at the point where the 

 thread is in contact with the chlorophyll-band, the spot may be 

 considered one where such a body will subsequently ajjpear. As 

 the amyhim-bodies increase by division, the grasping protoplasmic 

 thread also divides by forking, and thus each daughter amylum-body 

 is grasped by a protoplasmic thread ; and, on the other hand, the 

 protoplasmic threads may divide in the first instance, and a new 

 amylum-body is subsequently formed in the chlorophyU-band at the 

 extremity of the new protoplasmic thread. As an outcome of this 

 mode of increase, the adjacent amylum-bodies are often connected 

 bridgeways by threads of protoplasm; and as longitudinal division 

 of the chlorophyll-bands often proceeds synchronously with the 



