ZOOLOGY AND BOTANYj MICROSCOPY, ETC. 89 



2. Bodies whicli show the spectrum of living leaves (with ex- 

 ception of xanthophyll bands) ; solution emerald-green. 



a. Pure chlorophyll, by reduction from chlorophyllan. 

 h. ^-chlorophyll, by reduction from phyllocyaninic acid; black 

 lamellae with superficial blue colour. 



II. Soluble in water. 



3. Alkali-chlorophyll; solution emerald-green, black lamellse 

 without superficial colour. 



III. Soluble in ether. 



4. Cyanophyllin-barium ; emerald-green in solution, black lamellas 

 without superficial colour, no trace of iron, suitable for quantitative 

 determination of the green colouring matter of leaves. 



Further commimications are made on the extinction-coefficient 

 of the absorption-bands of a pure chlorophyll solution. From this it 

 seems that the end-absorption of the blue is weaker in all parts than 

 the absorption of the fixed band between B and C ; whence it follows 

 that the second maximum observed in the leaf and in an alcoholic 

 extract of chlorophyll is to be traced to a superposing of the spectra 

 of pure chlorophyll and xanthophyll. Further examination of the 

 spectrum of xanthophyll solution confirmed the earlier view that 

 xanthophyll shows only two bands in the blue, and end-absorption of 

 the violet. 



Crystallizability of Xanthophyll.* — According to Herr J. Eeinke, 

 the crystallized chlorophyll-yellow of Hanstein is nothing but choles- 

 terin with admixture of chlorophyll-yellow. The orange-red colour 

 of dead leaves of Delesseria sanguinea he found to be due to fluo- 

 rescence ; and the same was the case also with other Florideae. 



"Soluble Starch." t — The so-called "soluble starch" which 

 Sanio and Schenk found in the epidermal cells of Ornithogalum and 

 Gagea, has already been shown by Nageli not to be starch. Herr 

 J. Eraus gives reasons for regarding it as a substance belonging to 

 the class of tannins ; he finds a similar substance in the epidermal 

 cells of some species of Arum. 



Proteinaceous Bodies in Epiphyllum. J — Herr H. Molisch de- 

 scribes proteinaceous bodies of peculiar form found in the branches 

 of several species of Epiphyllum. They are of three kinds : — (1) fusi- 

 form, and then either straight, crescent-shaped, or sickle -shaped, 

 from 0*013 to O'Oli mm. long, and either homogeneous or distinctly 

 striated ; (2) annular, either circular or elliptical, and homogeneous or 

 laminated ; and (3) threads, curved in various ways. The author 

 believes that they are mainly formed by a process of intussusception. 

 The chemical and physical properties of these bodies are described in 

 detail, and lead to the conclusion that they are of the nature of 

 crystalloids, and that they serve as reserve-materials. 



* Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. Generalversammlung, 1885, pp. Iv.-lviii. 

 t Abhandl. Naturf. Gesell. Halle, xvi. (1885). See Bot, Centralbl., xxiii. 

 (1885) p. 133. 



t Ber. Deutsch. Bot, Gesell., iii. (1885) pp. 195-202 (1 pi.). 



