48 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
(2) Other Cell-Contents (including: Secretions}. 
Spectrum of Chlorophyll.* * * § — M. A. Etarcl describes in detail the 
spectrum of several different kinds of chlorophyll. He classifies the 
various kinds of chlorophyll in two groups, to which he gives the formulae 
C 28 H 45 N0 4 and C 34 H 53 N0 12 . These are found in different plants, and 
have different spectra. 
Artificial Starch. — Dr. 0. Biitschli f claims to have produced artifi- 
cially sphaerocrystals of starch by the very slow evaporation of a mixture 
of gelatin and an aqueous solution of starch, and maintains his previous 
view that starch and inulin have both a honeycomb structure. 
These researches are subjected to a very unfavourable criticism by 
Herr A. Meyer . J 
Colouring-Matter of the Aril of Celastrus.§ — Dr. Ida A. Keller 
finds the colouring-matter of the aril of Celastrus scandens to be a sub- 
stance resembling carotin, but differing from it in not being precipitated 
by alcohol after dissolving in carbon bisulphide. 
Reserve Food-Materials. || — Prof. J. R. Green gives the results of 
recent investigations on the mode of formation and the function of 
the various food-materials of plants. With regard to the alkaloids, he 
arrives at the conclusion that the greater number of them, and probably 
all, must be regarded not as reserve-materials, but as bye-products or ex- 
creta, appearing coincidently with the active metabolic processes of the 
growing plant. 
(3) Structure of Tissues. 
Wood of the Oak.^i — Herr P. Metzger states that the duramen and 
alburnum of the oak contain the same tannin, with the approximate 
formula C 15 H 16 O n , that of the bark being different ; they are both 
glucosides. The alburnum, duramen, and bark contain the same oil, be- 
longing to the series of palmitic, stearic, carotic, and oleic acids ; no 
cholesterin or wax was detected. Oxalic, malic, and tartaric acids were 
found in all three tissues ; also glucose and cane-sugar, but starch only 
in the duramen and alburnum. 
Secreting Pockets of the Myoporacese.** — In contrast to the state- 
ments of previous observers, M. J. Briquet has established that these 
structures are of schizo-lysigenous origin, a mode of formation of similar 
bodies which seems to be very widely distributed. Their first origin is 
schizogenous ; but the mode of escape of the oil into the central cavity 
and the subsequent processes must be termed lysigenous. The site of 
formation of the oil is always the cell-walls which are in process of 
gelification ; and the nucleus, wdiicli is always situated near the walls 
which bound the central cavity, appears to take part in the process. 
* Comptes Rendus, cxxiii. (1896) pp. 824-8 (1 fig.). 
t Ber. Versamml. Deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzte, 1896, Bot. Sect. See Bot. Cen- 
tralbl., lxviii. (1896) p. 213. X Bot. Ztg., liv. (1896) 2 te Abt , pp. 328-35. 
§ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1896, pp. 212-6 (1 fig.). 
II Science Progress, v. (1896) pp. 60-76. 
‘Beitr. z. cliem. Charakt. d. Holzkorpers der Eiclie,’ Heilbronn, 1896, 34 pp. 
,See Bot. Centralbl., lxviii. (1896) p. 48. 
** Comptes Rendus, cxxiii. (1896) pp. 515-7. Cf. this Journal, 1895, p. 190. 
