632 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
alkaline bath. Others, such as methylin-blue proposed by Gardiner, 
and anilin-brown and quinolain-blue proposed by Van Tieghem, are not 
so satisfactory. 
(2) Other Cell-contents (including: Secretions). 
Spherites in the Amaryllidacese.* — Dr. L. Re has detected spherites 
in a number of species of Agave, their abundance and distribution vary- 
ing greatly with the species. In A. mexicana they are especially 
abundant in the bracts, flowers, and fruit, but most so in the flower- 
stalks, where they are of enormous size. Treated with a dilute solution 
of ammonium oxalate, they manifest a concentrically stratified structure. 
Bodies of a like character were found also in Fourcroya gigantea, 
Polyanthes tuberosa , and Crinurn asiaticum. 
Chlorophyllane.f — M. A. 6t ard classifies into three groups the 
substances extracted from chlorophyll by carbon bisulphide, and into 
four groups those obtained by extraction with alcohol. From experiments 
made on twenty different species of plants, he comes to the conclusion 
that the substance described as clilorophyllane by Hoppe-Seyler, and 
identified by Tschirch with hypochlorine, is not a true chemical com- 
pound, but is a mixture of substances from which the green colour can 
be removed by animal charcoal without affecting the crystalline 
character. 
Iron in Plants. J — According to Dr. H. Molisch, iron occurs in 
plants in two forms, in that of ordinary iron-salts, and in such close 
combination with organic substances that it cannot be detected by the 
ordinary reagents. In the latter form it is universal, iron being an 
invariable constituent of the ash of plants. In the former state it does 
not occur in large quantities in Algae or Fungi, except in some Lichens. 
In flowering plants many seeds contain iron in this state in their 
procambium bundles, but it is absent from the endosperm and peri- 
sperm, and disappears altogether during germination. “ Masked ” iron 
occurs in the cell-wall or in the cell-contents or both ; it is especially 
abundant in lignified cell-walls ; and it may be present as a reserve- 
substance in the globoids of aleurone-grains. In opposition to the 
usual statement, the author was unable, in any case, to find any trace of 
iron in chlorophyll. Its presence in the iron-bacteria is not, as was 
supposed by Winogradsky, § the cause of the accumulation of iron in 
certain soils; nor is iron a physiological necessity, since it does not 
enter into living protoplasm, and it may be replaced, in some cases, by 
manganese. 
Fumarine in the Papaverace3e.|| — M. J. A. Battandier brings 
forward another argument in favour of the close affinity of the Papaver- 
aceEe and Fumariaceas, in the fact that he has found fumarine in the 
leaves of Glaucium corniculatum, which belongs to the former natural 
order. This alkaloid is universally distributed throughout the genera and 
* Bull. Soc. Bot. Ital., i. (1892) pp. 288-94. 
f Comptes Rendus, cxiv. (1892) pp. 1116-8. 
X ‘Die Pfianze in ihren Beziehungen zum Eisen,’ Jena, 1892, 119 pp. and 1 pi. 
See Bot. Centialbl., 1. (1892) p. 370. § Cf. this Journal, 1888, p. 786. 
|| Comptes Rendus, cxiv. (1892) pp. 1122-3. 
