474 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
BOTANY. 
A. GENERAL, including- the Anatomy and Physiology 
of the Phanerogamia. 
a. Anatomy. 
Cl) Cell-structure and Protoplasm. 
Structure of Living Protoplasm and Cell-membrane.* — Herr V. 
Fayod asserts that all living protoplasm is composed of delicate 
usually spirally twisted hollow threads, or “ spirofibrillae,” composed 
of a hyaline unstainable somewhat toughly gelatinous substance, which 
easily swells up, generally coiled together in such a way that they 
themselves form the walls of spirally- twisted hollow cylinders, the 
“ spirosparts.” The cavities of both threads and cylinders are normally 
filled up by the so-called granular protoplasm, in which the streamings 
of protoplasm take place. The spirofibrillae and spirosparts are the true 
morphological and physiological units, not limited to one cell, but 
passing from one to another, and traversing the whole plant. 
These bodies are invisible in ordinary fluids, such as water, glycerin, 
Canada balsam in turpentine, oils, &c., in consequence of the great 
capacity for swelling of their walls ; but their cavities can be injected 
with mercury under a pressure of two atmospheres ; they may then be 
examined in longitudinal section in a 0*75-5*0 per cent, solution of 
sodium chloride, or in a mixture of equal parts of water and a saturated 
alcoholic solution of lead acetate. 
Nature of Reserve-cellulose and its absorption in germination. t — 
Herr R. Reiss has investigated the nature of the so-called “reserve- 
cellulose ” in the endosperm and other parts of the seed of 4 a number of 
plants, and its mode of absorption on germination, and finds that it differs 
in most cases from true cellulose in its optical properties. The hydrolytic 
decomposition of ordinary cellulose gives a dextrose belonging to the 
group of grape-sugars, which reduces Fehling’s solution, and to which 
the author gives the name seminose. The reserve-cellulose, on the other 
hand, consists of a substance which, on hydrolytic decomposition, yields 
a sinistrose carbohydrate, which is possibly a compound, and which the 
author calls seminin ; it cannot, therefore, be identical with ordinary 
cellulose. The thickening layers, which are composed of this substance, 
are completely absorbed during the germination of the seed in six 
different ways, which are described in detail. 
Non-nitrogenous Reserve-substances in the Seeds of Leguminos8e4 
—Referring to the observations of Nadelmann,§ but conducting his 
researches in a macroscopic instead of a microscopic method, Herr E. 
Schulze confirms his statement that one constituent of the thickenings 
of the walR of the cells of the cotyledons in Lupinus acts as a reserve- 
material ; but this substance is, he states, not cellulose, but paragalactan. 
* Natuvwiss. Rundschau, v. (1890) pp. 81-4. See Bot. Centralbl., xli. (1890) p. 359. 
f Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., vii. (1889) pp. 322-9. 
+ T. c., pp. 355-9. § Cf. this Journal, 1889, p. 773. 
