410 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
tically all cells were dead, the outer layers being also disorganized. 
However, in the case of the material in n/150,000 for 93 hours, in the 
periblem cells about 3™™ from the apex of the root tip a few mitotic 
figures occurred. In the corresponding controls in distilled water, 
chromatic figures were frequent even in the outer periblem cells, 
but many abnormalities occurred in the achromatic figures and cyto- 
plasm (fig. 2b). Nuclear division occurred here and there in the 
inner periblem of tips which had been 93 hours in a ”/160,000 solu- 
tion, but the outer periblem was dead and disorganized. ‘The division 
figures did not differ from those in the controls, and the nuclei in 
the resting stage were normal in appearance. In tips exposed for 
68 hours to the action of ”/300,000, ”/400,000, and /5300,000 solu- 
tions, division was frequent in all parts of the active tissue and did 
not differ essentially from that in the corresponding controls. How- 
ever, the outer cell layers of the tips in the copper solutions were less 
active, and the total number of mitoses was smaller than in the con- 
trols. The cytoplasm of many cells contained vacuoles of variable 
size, some being so large as to crowd heavily upon the nucleus. 
The same phenomenon occurred, though less frequently, in the 
controls. 
' DeMoor (7), who studied the effect of chloroform on the cell 
protoplasm, observed therein a marked vacuolization which he 
regarded as the direct result of the action of this reagent. Also NEMEC 
(18) found that chloroform and potassium nitrate produced vacuoles 
in both chromosomes and cytoplasm of Vicia Faba, and BLAzeK (3) 
states that benzol vapor caused the vacuoles of the cytoplasm so to 
increase in size that they caused deformation of the nuclei. How- 
ever, since vacuoles, similar to those observed in the course of these 
experiments with copper sulfate, occurred also in the controls in 
distilled water, it would appear to follow that this phenomenon is 
not necessarily due to a narcotic or poisonous action, but may result 
from an alteration in the concentration of the cell fluids. 
Before the examination of the toxicated material had proceeded 
very far, it became evident that the conditions of mitosis in the controls 
grown in distilled water were far from normal. The entire series of 
controls was thereupon reexamined, and a progressive degeneration 
demonstrated therein closely resembling that in the cells treated with 
