4 Ashworth, Tubers of Anthoceros tuberosus. 



of *oo6mm., the diameter of the smaller granules being 

 about '002mm. Both larger and smaller grains contain 

 one, two, or three brighter and more refringent portions, 

 which may be enclosed bodies or only specialised portions 

 of the substance of the grains. The grains are swollen 

 and dissolved by a weak solution of potash (2%), and in 

 some grains there is an inner portion which remains 

 undissolved for a short time. The granules are not 

 starch, as they are stained yellow by iodine. They give 

 other reactions for proteids ; e.g., they turn bright 

 yellow when treated with nitric acid and ammonia 

 (xanthoproteic reaction), and they stain readily with 

 picrocarmine, hsematoxylin, aniline blue, acid fuchsin, 

 and other protoplasmic stains. The tests mentioned 

 above prove that the grains consist of some proteid 

 substance, and they appear to be aleurone grains. 



The food material stored up in the tubers of 

 Anthoceros tuberosus differs, therefore, from that in the 

 tubers of Fossombronia (n. sp.), which were found by 

 Ruge to contain considerable quantities of starch. In 

 the Synopsis, the tubers of Anthoceros tuberosus are said 

 to contain a farinaceous mass ; but it is necessary to 

 remember, in considering this statement, that the nature 

 of aleurone grains was only discovered in 1855, that is 

 eight years after the publication of the Synopsis. 



The small size of the granules in the tubers of Antho- 

 ceros tuberosus does not preclude the possibility of their 

 being aleurone grains, as in some plants aleurone grains 

 attain a diameter of only 'ooi mm. The occurrence of 

 larger and smaller grains in the same cell is also known 

 in other cases (e.g. Vitis). The occurrence of oil and 

 aleurone grains together as reserve food materials is not 

 at all uncommon, but they have not hitherto, to my 

 knowledge, been found together in Liverworts, though oil- 

 containing bodies • have long been known to occur in 



