A STUDY OF PLASTIDS AND MITOCHONDRIA 
221 
the whole, not so much to demonstrate the presence of mitochondria therein 
as to substantiate his theory of their functional role. In addition to 
portraying the same processes of development as those described by his 
predecessors, Guilliermond seeks to show that the mitochondria of plant 
cells possess the same "elaborative " functions that have been postulated for 
animal mitochondria by Regaud and others. In a resume of the work upon 
mitochondria, published in ''La Revue generale de Botanique'' in 1914, he 
says: Ces recherches demontrent surah ondamment que les mitochondries sont 
desplastes, c'est-d-dire des organites qui elahorent les produits de secretion. . . . 
A la suite de ces recherches, la cellule apparait desormais avec un nouvel ele- 
ment: le chondriome, dont la presence est aussi constante et joue un role aussi 
essentiel que le noyau. . . . La decouverte des mitochondries transforme done 
la cytologic.'' Mottier ('18) has discussed the literature on the relations of 
chondriosomes and plastids and it need not be further summarized here. 
Observations 
Although I was particularly concerned, in my own investigations, with 
obtaining evidence as to the relationship between mitochondria and plastids, 
the mitochondrial methods of fixing and staining were tested first upon 
animal tissue. A number of preparations were made from the testes of the 
grasshopper, Caloptenus femurruhrum. They were fixed with Benda's 
solution, with Bensley's, and with Flemming's strong solution, and stained 
in various ways, in order to compare the results obtained with different 
combinations. 
Benda's method of fixing and staining gave by far the best results, the 
mitochondria being well differentiated and shown in the characteristic 
changes through which they pass, as described by Lewis and Robertson 
('16) in their observations upon the behavior of the mitochondria during 
spermatogenesis in the grasshopper, Chorthippus curtipennis. In my 
preparations, Bensley's method gave unsatisfactory results in general 
protoplasmic differentiation, though the mitochondria were well preserved 
and stained. 
Benda's process, according to the formula given below, was therefore 
used in most of my plant material. 
Fixation. I. Benda's Flemming, 8 days. 
(i percent chromic acid, 15 cc, 
2 percent osmic acid, 4 cc, 
3 drops acetic acid.) 
II. Wash in water, i hr. 
III. Pyroligneous acid (rectified) and chromic acid I per- 
cent, equal parts, 24 hrs. 
IV. Bichromate of potassium, 2 percent, 24 hrs. 
V. Wash in water, 24 hrs. 
VI. Dehydrate and imbed. Cut 5 microns thick. 
