CHAPTER I 

 THE ORGANIZATION OF PROTOPLASTS 



i. The Visible Organization 



Protoplasm is the vehicle of the phenomena of life, 

 and therefore also of hereditary characters. Hence, any 

 theory of heredity must start from a definite view in re- 

 gard to the structure of this important substance. But 

 anatomical investigation, in spite of its astonishing prog- 

 ress during the last decade, has in this very field not yet 

 achieved a clear and generally accepted conception of this 

 structure. 



This is essentially due to the circumstance that the 

 newer methods for the study of the nucleus and its division 

 have disclosed a field so important, and so rich in surpris- 

 ing results, that attention has been directed chiefly, and 

 frequently exclusively, to this organ. Often one even 

 meets with views which put the protoplasm (cytoplasm) 

 into the background with reference to the nucleus. 



But the study of the nucleus is so much advanced at 

 present that one may hesitate at this one-sided treatment. 

 The researches of Flemming, Strasburger, and so many 

 other investigators, have disclosed the structure of the 

 nucleus and the changes of this structure during division, 

 and have, in the main, brought our knowledge to a definite 

 conclusion. Now, especially in botany, the investigation 

 of cell-division itself comes again to the front. And it is 

 not only a question of establishing the relation of the nu- 

 cleus to the cytoplasm ; it is just as essential a problem to 



