Pol it is, loannes, Honorary Assistant in the Botanical Institute of the Roy al 



University of Favia . 



ON THE ELAIOPLi^TS IN MONO- AND DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. Translation 



of: Sugli elaioplasti nelle mono- e dicotiledoni. Atti 1st. Bot* 



Univ. Pavia, II, l^^; 335-361. pi. xiii-xv. igi^. 



In ISSS Wakker (5) * noted for the first time within the cytoplasm of 

 the epidermal cells of young leaves of Vanilla planifolia axx5. of V. aromatica 

 latifolia some special bodies very sCr'ongly refractile to light, to which he 

 gave the name elaioplasts (formed from olio), because they consisted of a 

 fundamental plasmic wub stance in which were found included a fatty or oily 

 substance. About five years later Zinmermann (3), having found in the perianth 

 of Funkia coerulea similar bodies, took up the study of the question and ex- 

 amined many species belonging to a large number of families among the Mono- 

 cotyledoneae. Studying the elaioplasts from a morphologic point of view and 

 that of their diffusion, the result of this research was that he found the 

 elaioplasts in five other genera, of which three belonged to the Liliaceae, 

 one to the Amaryllidaceae , and one to the Orchidaceae. 



The first, hoW&ver. to study the development of the bodies in question 

 was Eaciborski in 1893 in the genera Omithogalum, Albuca, Punkia. and Gagea. 



Eaciborski (5) noted that, in these the elaioplasts appeared as little 

 spheres strongly refractile to light, always close to the cell nucleus; that 

 they did not participate in nuclear division and that they multiplied by 

 neoplasia from the cytoplasm. In Ornithopalum stactyoides the elaioplasts 

 would multiply, according to the author, by gemmation. 



^ Reference is made by number to "Literature cite 

 translation. 



