( 233 ) 
in. — A Curious Fact in connection with certain Cells in the 
Leaves of Hyjpericum Androssemum. By W. Hinds, M.D. 
(Bead before the Royal Microscopical Society, October 4, 1876.) 
The presence of motile protoptiytes in certain cells of the leaves of 
Tutson certainly struck me by surprise. It was a circumstance I 
was not prepared for, and I shall be glad if any investigator who 
may have met with this will kindly give his opinion as to the con- 
ditions of their production. 
The specimens of the plant examined were brought to me, 
amongst others, from near Tunbridge. On examining the leaves, 
I found the true glandular dots, as it appeared to me, almost entirely 
absent ; but here and there, often near the margin of some leaves, 
were minute light-coloured puncta with no chlorophyll. In these 
specimens the puncta were mostly seen in the centre of the small 
sections of parenchyma, surrounded by the ultimate ramifications of 
the vascular system of the leaf. Examining one of these somewhat 
angular spaces in a thin slice of epidermis and subjacent from the 
upper side of the leaf, the central light pimctum was seen to be 
replete with very active motile bodies. They were not of uniform 
size, but varied considerably. The examination was made with a 
J inch objective, and afterwards by Yeth immersion. 
The leaves having been afterwards kept in a vasculum for one 
week, these motile bodies were still seen, but in a somewhat less 
active state and in diminished numbers. 
Since the above notes were written, I have examined leaves of 
a closely allied * species growing in this locality (Birmingham), and 
I find just the same conditions present. The clear spaces appear 
to be complete colonies of motile forms, with some still forms, 
resembling the active. What do these conditions indicate ? 
As to the nature of the spaces, no doubt they are translucent 
from the absence of chlorophyll. The cellular is not the same as in 
the other parts of the angular space. The cells are somewhat 
larger, less rei^ular in outline, and less angular than those which 
contain the chlorophyll. These translucent spaces being often in 
the centre of the angular space have no direct couDection with the 
vascular tracks which constitute the ultimate capillaries of the leaf. 
They are, therefore, in such cases farthest removed from the imme- 
diate source of vascular nutrition. Their vital powers may be 
probably thus lowered, and this may have some relation with the 
presence of the motile particles described. 
Another supposition might be advanced. Are these dots truly 
glandular ? If so, do they secrete a substance liable to fermentation 
* //. Calycinum. 
