by M. Edouard Heckel,3 and which is represented in the table. ; 
i x 
‘ See . Stat., 1886, 370, 380; Jour. Chem. Soc., Jan. 1887; P- fe i 
T. On the variations of Sucrose in Sorghum Saccharatum, by H. Wee 
Botanical Gazette, vol. xii., March, 1887. : 
~ 7 Revue Scientifique, 13 Mars, 1886, 
- My time will not allow a discussion of the changes of starch 
; few years from former views held in plant chemistry, I will mer - 
_ tion that sugar is not, in all plants, a reserve or plastic body, 31% _ 
_ centage after the maturity of growth marks the decay an l 
prepare for a consideration of the compounds which are sor 
dom. In treating of this subject I shall have so frequent 0% 
728 Comparative Chemistry of Higher and Lower Plants, [Aug 
alkaloids is a general function common to all living cells, 
whether they be Bacteria or the cells of living animals. , 
In the animals with their excretory functions these poisonous — 
substances would be readily eliminated from the system, but it 
seems to me that in the absence ‘of homologous organs in plast ; 
these compounds might be used again for the building up d 
tissue and prevent the accumulation of products detrimental to 
plants, and the recent investigations of Kellner? on the composi- 
tion of tea-leaves show that this view is not unlikely, for he | 
states that the non-albuminoid nitrogen is almost wholly absent 
during the latter stages of growth, being found as theine; in thè 
seeds the albumen has increased, but no theine is found, thus the : 
author believes that positive ptoof is afforded that the alkaloids 
are a decomposition product of albumen, and capable of agait | 
forming albumen like asparagine and glutamine. oa 
It will not be possible in this place to ènter more fully into 
the details of the chemical changes going on within the plant 
into “sugar, and conversely, nor a review of the many steps " 
the transformation of protoplasm into the simpler products % 
cellulose, chlorophyll, and other substances; and it may be We" | 
to say that the ideas of physiologists in regard to these chang? | 
are unstable, since the acquisition of new facts seems to unset’ ] 
former-opinions. But, to illustrate the revolution within the lat | 
in some few (for example, the sorghum-cane?) it must be ea 
garded rather as a waste product, and its advent in larger P 
plant and attends its euthanasia. oe 
I have desired, by entering into all of the above particulars. * | 
by these chemical successions and occur through the plant king 
sion to speak of the different plant families that, for convenient 
I shall use the order of evolution for flowering plants prop% oe 
