COLOURED CELL-SAP. 57 



In the blue sepals of the Larkspur, Delphinium consolida, we 

 find the epidermis of both upper and under sides composed of 

 cells with sinuous outlines, and the epidermal cells of the upper 

 side are also protruded, each into a papilla. The cuticuiar 

 striations ascend the papillae on all sides, so that by focussing the 

 microscope at the mid-height of the papillae, star-like figures arise. 

 The cells contain a blue cell-sap, somewhat shading into violet, 

 besides also, in many cells, blue stars, which consist of short 

 needles of crystallised colour-substance. The epidermis can be 

 removed in small pieces ; moreover, the sepal is sufficiently 

 transparent, after removal of the air, to permit examination at 

 the edges through its entire thickness. 



Examples of blue and red cell-sap can be easily multiplied, 

 for they are found respectively in almost all blue and red flowers. 

 The case of the bright red flowers of Adonis aestivalis and 

 A. autumnalis becomes, therefore, so much the more remarkable. 

 The preparation can be removed with the forceps, and in the 

 epidermis we see beautiful, nearly round to elliptic, red grains, 

 comparatively large, and attaining the size of chlorophyll bodies. 

 They appear finely granular, and in water separate quickly into 

 very small granules, which show molecular movements (" Brown- 

 ian movement "). The epidermal cells are elongated ; their 

 cuticle longitudinally striate ; the striae are clearly continued over 

 the limits of the cells. The same phenomena 

 are shown by the cells of the red perianths 

 of species of Aloe. 



Colour-bodies of Carrot. The root of the 

 arrot, Daucus Carota, furnishes a very in- 

 teresting object. The orange-red colour of 

 this root arises from carmine and orange-red 

 colour-bodies of a crystalline form. The 

 most common shapes are found collected in 

 Fig. 20. They are small rectangular plates 

 or rhombs, the rhombs often acicularly elon- 

 gated, and prisms of different lengths, often 

 broadening out fan-wise at one end. Such 



crystalline formations have often small starch from the root of the Carrot, 

 grains projecting from one side; these crystal- ( x m 5 e 4 o^ ith stareh 8rain8 

 line structures must therefore be placed in the 



same category with chlorophyll and other colour-bodies as starch- 

 iorming plastids (amyloplasts). The crystallised colour-material, 



FIG. 20. Colour-bodies 



