Minutes of Proceedings lxxxix 
ORDINARY MONTHLY MEETING. 
Wednesday, September 26, 1894. 
Mr. R. MAR LotH, Ph.D., M.A., President, in the Chair. 
Mr. R. SCHLECHTER exhibited anew orchid, and gave a short 
account of the vegetation in the Houtbosch Mountains, in the Northern 
Transvaal. 
Dr. MARLOTH gave an account of 
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE FUNCTION OF ANTHOCYANIN. 
The young leaves of many plants and young fronds of ferns, he said, 
were often more or less red or brown. This colour was due to the 
presence of a red pigment, called Anthocyanin (flower-red), and its 
function was to protect the chlorophyll of these young organs against 
too intense light, which would destroy the green pigment. Professor 
Kny read a paper on this subject at the last International Botanical 
Congress at Genoa (1892), and mentioned an experiment made in order 
to test this power of the red pigment. He prepared a solution of 
chlorophyll, and exposed it in two separate bottles to the rays of the 
sun, one bottle being protected by a tray containing a solution of the 
red pigment. The chlorophyll in the unprotected bottle was soon 
destroyed, while that in the other one resisted much longer. Two 
observations which he had made recently confirmed fully this view of 
the function of Anthocyanin. One of our most common ferns, Lomaria 
attenuata, Willd. (which grows in shady ravines), produces very beautiful 
red fronds. About four years ago he brought one*plant with such 
fronds home, and planted it. It continued to develop such red fronds 
for more than a year, then it was accidentally removed to ‘another 
place, where it was never reached by a ray of direct sunlight. It 
remained there for two years, and he noticed that later on the young 
fronds were not red, but green, which he regretted. About a year ago 
he removed the plant to another spot, where it received more light, 
because it appeared to lose its vigour. Gradually this spot was exposed 
to direct sunlight for several hours of the day, and, to his great surprise, 
the young fronds were now red, as four years ago. Lvidently the red 
pigment had appeared in the young fronds to protect them against the 
strong light. 
Another observation bearing on the same question he made last 
summer. On one of the oaks in the Avenue, the young leaves, which 
were late, had been killed by an early south-easter at the beginning of 
October. The tree produced a fresh set of leaves at the end of the 
