TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 



fashion, it is found to lie on the former straight line, intermediate between linn, 

 trichophyllus and hcterophgllus. 



M. Revel, the author of the species, found the plant to remain constant during; 

 five successive seasons. 



Whether it is considered as a distinct (sub)species, or as a variety of Ran. tricho- 

 phyllus, I thought a notice of the plant would be interesting. 



The paper was accompanied by several specimens and a drawing of the plant. 



On the Identify of Origin of Starch and Chlorophylle. 

 By Dr. W. Hinds, Professor of Botany, Queen's College, Birmingham. 



Whoever has devoted much time to the investigation of the internal structure of 

 plants, must have often been at a loss to determine the exact nature of the various- 

 sized granular objects which meet the eye. These granules abound in nearly all 

 vegetable tissues, and vary in size from those of Canna eclulis (or Tous-lcs-mois 

 starch-granules), the largest known, to the vanishing-point of sight with high 

 powers. 



During several years of close examination of vegetable tissue, the author has 

 endeavoured as far as expedient to divide these definable granular bodies into starch 

 and chlorophylle granules, but the extreme resemblance in a vast number of in- 

 stances between them, while it has been sometimes a source of perplexity, led to 

 his examination of them with the view to determine how far these bodies were 

 identical in their nature and origin. After a series of experiments and investiga- 

 tions, he arrived at the conclusion that these two series of granules must be con- 

 sidered fundamentally the same, one series being merely coloured or chlorized. 



The grounds on which this conclusion has been arrived at may be thus epitomized. 



Chlorized and unchlorized starches are found in the same organ in simple obedi- 

 ence to situation with respect to light. This is seen in the stem of the common 

 and mature geranium. 1 he granules are here found of the same size and form. 



The same fact is seen in the case of the common potato tuber. Below the soil, 

 all the granules are colourless ; but, exposed for even a short period to light, the 

 granules begin at once to become chlorized at the surface. 



Even when detached from the plant and placed in a warm atmosphere with free 

 exposure to light, this process of chlorization goes on rapidly. In the paper, of 

 which this is a very short abstract, it is shown how this effect can be produced at 

 will, and by covering over some parts of tubers, and leaving other parts exposed to 

 light, chlorization printing in letter or ornament and in the negative may be pro- 

 duced. In the author's paper the subject of tests and reactions in reference to starch 

 and chlorophylle granules is examined, together with the chemical features of the 

 matter. 



The solubility of chlorophylle colouring-matter is also considered, and the reason 

 why ordinary chlorophylle granules are not sufficiently perfect to exhibit iodic re- 

 action ; in this respect, indeed, resembling the acknowledged starches which are found 

 in such fruits as cucumber, and Such roots as turnip and carrot, the starches in 

 which will seldom show the proper iodic reaction. 



The author concludes that unchlorized starch-granules will never be produced in 

 the light, for immediately they acquire form and consistence, they become chlorized. 



Also that chlorization will take place in dead, and therefore vitally quiescent 

 granules, when under certain conditions they are exposed to light, and that there- 

 fore chlorization is a chemical, or at any rate not a vital process, as heretofore 

 considered. 



The almost universal green of nature is amylaceous, and can supply fuel, at least 

 in the matter of food, to animals. Partly or wholly decolorized to the ordinary 

 observer, as in shrivelled or dry grass as hay, the same amylaceous principle is yet 

 present. The nutritive properties of hay which can support, of itself, animal life, 

 cannot depend on the tissues alone, or on the fruits, which in the minor grasses 

 are insignificant. On the other hand, amylaceous matters are known to be intensely 

 nutritive, and those parts of plants in which this principle is concentrated are 

 nutritive in proportion to the amount of that concentration. 



- 1865. 6 



