820 REPORT—1904. 
Dufour’s observation was confirmed that the substance does not disappear if 
the plant is kept in the dark. In etiolated shoots, grown entirely in the dark 
from a rhizome, the substance is not formed, but it appears when these shoots are 
transferred to the light, even after they have been cut off from the rhizome and 
placed in water. Saponarin is therefore produced by the leaves themselves, and 
only when these are kept in the light. 
No enzyme could be found capable of hydrolysing the glucoside, and Professor 
Beyerinck, of Delft, was kind enough to inform the author that he could not split 
it with bacteria. From the way in which the substance disappears in Hordeum 
and Bryonia after the death of the plant, it seems nevertheless likely that an 
enzyme exists capable of hydrolysing the glucoside. 
Nothing is known about the way in which saponarin is useful to the plant. 
Professor Errera has suggested that as it is only found in the epidermis it might 
act as a deterrent to animals, after the manner of many alkaloids. The substance 
is, however, physio'ogically inactive. 
Pfeffer has suggested that aromatic substances combine with sugar to form 
substances which diosmose with difficulty, and so to store up a greater supply of 
sugar than would be otherwise possible. In this connection it may be observed 
that saponarin does not truly dissolve in water, but only forms a suspension like 
starch, so that it does not raise the osmotic pressure of the cell-sap in which it 
occurs. 
8. On the Centrosome of the Hepaticw. By K. Miyuxen, M.A., Ph.D. 
The present communication is a part of my uncompleted study on the spermato- 
genesis of the Hepatic. The study was originally started with the cbject of 
repeating the recent remarkable observations of Ikeno on Merchantia polymorpha, 
and was afterwards extended to Fegatella conica, Pellia epiphylla, Makinoa crispa, 
and a species of Aneura. 
When the nuclear division is about to take place the nucleus assumes a more or 
less elliptical shape, and two cytoplasmic radiations or asters are seen at opposite 
poles of the nucleus. In the centre of the aster no distinct hody corresponding 
to the centrosome was observed. When the spindle is formed the aster entirely 
disappears, and no structure which might be taken for a centrosome was seen at 
the spindle pole. I also failed to see, either in the resting stage or in the dividing 
nucleus of the young antheridium, the structure corresponding to the centrosome 
of Ikeno. 
Only, in the last division in the antheridium of Merchantia and Fegatella 1 
found a deeply staining body at each pole of the spindle, as figured by Ikeno, 
Although I have not studied the further behaviour of this body in the develop- 
ment of the spermatozoid, there can be little doubt that it will take part in the 
formation of cilia as [keno described, and may properly be called a blepharoplast. 
On the other hand, at the spindle pole of the last division of Makinoa I was able to 
recognise neither centrosome nor blepharoplast. However, I often observed two 
granular bodies, nearly opposite to each other, at some distance from each pole of 
the spindle. In the spermatid I often observed a deeply staining spherical body in 
the cytoplasm, which is very probably a blepharoplast. 
The identity of these two structures is very probable, although it has not been 
conclusively proved. 
The presence of centrosome in the flowering plants and ferns seems to have 
been almost conclusively dis,roved by the careful researches of cytologists during 
the last ten years. On the other hand, it is still generally believed that in the 
Bryophytes and Thallophytes centrosome does exist. But my present study seems 
to show that there is no true centrosome, at least in the Hepatic, agreeing with 
the recent investigation of Gregoire in Pellia. The centrosome hitherto reported 
in the cells of the Hepatic is nothing but a centre of cytoplasmic radiations. 
