ALECTO. 



ALGM. 



wards the base and forming more than one 

 row. Body attached to a Sertularia by a 

 tolerably stout stem. 



A second species was rather smaller, body 

 ovate, with a very slender and shortish 

 stem ; tentacles capitate, not so numerous as 

 in the first species, and placed in a single 

 row round a narrow disk. 



This was also found on a Sertularia. 



A third (PL 49. fig. 15) was found in 

 fresh water. Body pear-shaped or, rather, 

 bell-shaped, with a distinct rim, and a single 

 row of delicate capitate retractile tentacles ; 

 stem long and slender. They come nearest 

 to the genus Acineta. Similar organisms 

 have been observed by Str. Wright. 



BIBL. Trans, of Tyneside Naturalists' 

 Field Club, i. p. 365 ; Ann. N. Hist. vii. 

 p. 426 ; Pritchard's Inf. p. 562. 



ALECTO, Lamx. (Stomatopora). A 

 genus of marine Polyzoa, of the suborder 

 Cyclostomata and family Tubuliporidse. 



The species are found upon old shells and 

 stones from deep water. 



A. granulata. Cells in one or occasion- 

 ally two rows, their walls granular. 



A. major. Cells in more than one or two 

 rows, their walls smooth. 



A. dilatam. Branches of polypary dila- 

 ted at the ends j cells in several rows, their 

 walls granular. 



Nine other species. 



BIBL. Johnston, Brit. Zooph. p. 280 j 

 Busk, Cat. of Mar. Polyz. (Brit. Mus.) ; 

 Hincks, Polyzoa, 1880, p. 424. 



ALECTO'RIA, Acharius. A genus of 

 Lichens, fam. Lichenacei. Six British 

 species j on alpine rocks. 



BIBL. Leighton, Lichen-Flora, 1879, 

 p. 77. 



ALETJ'RONE (Gluten-flour). This or- 

 ganized cell-substance, like starch, is very 

 generally diffused through the vegetable 

 kingdom, occurring in the endosperm and 

 cotyledons of most seeds. It exists in large 

 quantity in castor-oil and lupine seeds, in 

 nuts, almonds, cocoa, and coflee-beans &c. It 

 was long overlooked, on account of its solu- 

 bility in water. In starchy seeds it consists 

 of minute granules, of a spherical form, 

 often pitted on the surface, either solid or 

 hollow, and covered by a membrane ; while 

 i:i oily seeds, the grains are larger and more 

 complex. They are insoluble in ether, al- 

 cohol, and fixed oils, but soluble in water, 

 dilute acids, and alkalies. They are coloured 

 deep yellow by iodine, and intense red 

 by carmine-solution. Nitrate of mercury 



renders the interior brick-red, but does not 

 colour the wall. Each granule consists 

 principally of albuminous matter, but also 

 contains gum and sugar. In many oily seeds, 

 as castor-oil, Brazil nuts, &c., the aleurone 

 grains contain a crystalloid and a globoid 

 body. The crystalloids possess angular forms, 

 and so resemble crystals ; they are not dis- 

 solved by water or acids, but swell in Liq. 

 Potasses, and are coloured yellow by iodine. 

 The globoids are small rounded masses, not 

 crystalline, but composed of phosphate of 

 lime and magnesia: they are soluble in acids, 

 but not in alkalies. Sometimes crystals of 

 oxalate of lime are also met with in the 

 grains. Aleurone is usually colourless, some- 

 times green, as in pistachio-nuts, yellow in 

 Ailanthus-seeds, or blue. It is most easily 

 examined in a thin section of an almond or 

 castor-oil seed immersed in oil or spirit. 



Fig. 6 b. 



Magnified 400 diameters. Magnified 800 diameters. 



* Pisum sativum, the garden pea ; showing the small 

 grains of aleurone, and the large starch -grains. 



** Cell of Eicinus communis, showing the granular 

 protoplasm with oil-globules, and the ovoid aleurone- 

 grains, containing the round globoids and the angular 

 crystalloids. 



The nutritive properties of many seeds, 

 as peas, nuts, almonds, &c., depend to a 

 considerable extent upon the presence of 

 aleurone. Arid the solubility of aleurone in 

 water is a point of great consideration in re- 

 gard to the formation of dietary tables. For 

 if, in boiled peas for instance, the nitroge- 

 nous proportion is calculated according to 

 that naturally existing, and the liquor be not 

 consumed, the diet will be deficient in that 

 principle to a corresponding degree. 



BIBL. Hartig, Bot. Zeit. 1857 j Wiesner, 

 Techn. Mikr. p. 74, 1867 ; Sachs, Bot. p. 52. 



ALG^E, Sea-weeds $c. This class of 

 Thallophytes includes the Sea-weeds and 

 the multifarious green vegetable forms of 



