424 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
theory of Loew, and concludes that the fungi and bacteria are prac- 
tically unharmed by this alkaloid, since they have no differentiation of 
nerve protoplasm. This line of reasoning carried logically forward 
would argue for the presence of protoplasmic structure in the higher 
plants which should be comparable with the nerve fibers of animals. 
Such structures have indeed been described by NEMEC (19) from root 
tips of Allium and Vicia Faba. In the latter plant the longitudinal 
protoplasmic strands of the large plerome cells of the root are regarded 
by Nemec as bundles of fibrillae surrounded by a definite sheath 
and lying imbedded in a special plasma. Nemec concludes that 
these fibrils are strands of protoplasm specialized for the conduction 
of traumatropic, geotropic, and other stimuli, and compares them, 
although with little apparent warrant, to the nerve fibers of animals. 
Since the protoplasm often develops a fibrillar structure in connection 
with other functions, it is not certain that the systems of fibrillae 
observed by Nemec are specially adapted for the transmission of 
these stimuli, and therefore the portion of the protoplasm peculiarly 
sensitive to the action of alkaloids. ANDREws (1) found that many 
marine plants, including Cladophora, Ectocarpus, and Polysiphonia, 
were uninjured by a solution of strychnin sulfate having one part in 
tooo of water, but that a solution of the same having one part in 
250 killed all the plants in 24 hours. 
Although the experiments carried out with strychnin sulfate on 
Vicia Faba were far-from satisfactory, they indicate clearly that 
this reagent is an active poison to the plant used. The cytoplasm 
first becomes vacuolate, and then degenerates in the outer cell layers, 
and this condition progresses toward the center of the root tip as the 
time of exposure to the strychnin solution is extended. It is planned 
to pursue this line of experimentation farther, in order to determine 
whether this reagent produces definite and characteristic form 
changes in the protoplasm. 
Summary and conclusions 
The cell studies here described were made in the hope of obtaining 
some further data on the physiology of toxic action. The work which 
has been done in this direction seems to be concerned more with the 
production and study of abnormal cell phenomena than with the com- 
