226 The American Naturalist. [March, 



variable organisms, or that it is possible by holding on to the old notion 

 of fixity of species to make half a dozen new ones out of the product of 

 a single spore by a little variation of the substratum, or even without 

 the latter device by drawing up separate descriptions of old and young 

 and large, small and medium sized spores. Is it not indeed time we 

 should have a reform and begin to reduce the number of species by 

 carefully studying those which have been badly described (by far the 

 larger number), learning their life history and the extent of their 

 variability under ordinary conditions, and throwing out the synonyms? 

 This method carefully applied would unquestionably reduce the number 

 of so-called species of fungi and bacteria nearly or quite one-half. 

 This must necessarily form a large part of the work of the next genera- 

 tion of mycologists, and no one familiar with the ground can doubt 

 that the task of properly classifying these plants would be immensely 

 easier if half the descriptions had never been written. — Ebwin F. 

 Smith. 



Function of Anthocyan. — The following is an abstract of a short 

 paper by Prof. Leopold Kny, of Berlin, Zur physiologische Bedeutung 

 des Anthocyans, published in Atii del Congresso Botanico internazion- 

 ale di Oenova, 1892 (pp. 135-144). The name anthocyan has been 

 given to a coloring matter occurring in the vegetative and floral organs 

 of many plants in numerous transitional shades from red through 

 violet to blue. It occurs dissolved in the cell sap and is sensitive to 

 acids and alkalies, changing from one shade of color to another as they 

 are used. It is probable that several different substances have been 

 included under this term, for while in most plants these colors appear 

 only on exposure to light, especially bright sunshine, in others they ap- 

 pear just the same in total darkness, e. g. in the perianth of Tulipa ges- 

 neriana, Crocus vermis, and Scilla siberka, the inner tissues of the root 

 of the red beet, and the inner leaves of the red cabbage. In case of 

 the floral organs anthocyan undoubtedly serves to make them conspic- 

 uous to insects, etc., but for the most part it can have no such function 

 in the vegetative organs. Its use to these parts of the plant has been 

 explained in three different ways. (1) When young leaves and stems 

 either from seedlings or from buds take on a distinct red or violet color 

 and subsequently lose it wholly or in part, it is but a step to the hypo- 

 thesis that this color has been developed for the protection of the 

 chlorophyll from injury by light. It is explained in this way by Ker- 

 ner von Marilaun. On this supposition, it is difficult to understand 

 how many young shoots get along without it, e. g. species of Iris, the 

 young leaves of which are bright green. As proof, Kerner makes 



