I 'S I I TKK'ULAK STIUTCTUKKS. 



cell or an utricle originally attached to the wall of the 

 ((ill, and produced by this. The envelope is starch; the 

 contents gummy (gurmnos) and seiniilnid. Microscopic 

 investigation is in opposition to this view. 



The second opinion, as champions of which I'Yitsche 

 and Schleiden may be named, maintain, on chemical 

 grounds, the fundamental point, that, with the exception 

 of UK; nucleus, the layers are wholly composed of the 

 same chemical substance. The outermost layers are im- 

 pregnated with foreign matters, and arc thus rendered 

 insoluble in water. Especial dillicnlties occur in this 

 view, both in chemical and physiological respects, in ex- 

 plaining the nucleus, which, according to the authors 

 mentioned, on one hand, is a hollow space, on the other, 

 contains neither sugar, gum, nor starch. What then is 

 the thing upon which the first and innermost layer of 

 starch is deposited. 



The third opinion has been recently promulgated by 

 Munter.* The innermost layers are the softest, and 

 thus the youngest. Very good ; but the origin of 

 the outermost and earliest layers of starch is here 

 forgotten ; upon what are these deposited ? Of course 

 there is no difficulty about those succeeding. More- 

 over, a fact which Munter states that he has ascer- 

 tained in the starch-grains of Gloriosa superba, stands in 

 strange contradiction to this view, namely, " that an or- 

 ganic compound also may appear in a crystalline form ;" 

 and then the term of " starch-concretions" (starkedmsen) 

 proposed for these so-called agglomerated granules is just 

 as inapplicable. 



In my opinion, the starch-grains are utricles, and con- 

 sist, like the other utricles, of a membrane arid lluid 

 contents. Concentric layers are deposited on the inside 

 of the membrane as in lignifying cells. The cavity of 

 the utricle (the so-called nucleus) thus becomes reduced 

 to a most minute excavation, which is always filled with 

 fluid. 



* Holanisfhe Zcitung-, 1815, j>. I '.:;. 



