196 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
BOTANY. 
A. GENERAL, including the Anatomy and Physiology 
of the Phanerogainia. 
a. Anatomy. 
C13 Cell-structure and Protoplasm. 
Nuclear Origin of Protoplasm.* — M. C. Degagny now discusses 
the nuclear origin of protoplasm, and also the origin of diastases in the 
digestion of the nucellus. The facts which have been observed in the 
nucleus of the mother-cell of the embryo-sac of the fritillary and lily, 
and in the mother-cells of pollen, are only an exaggeration of a general 
phenomenon, the production of hyaloplasm in the interior of the nucleus. 
This production is clearly shown in the nucleus of the mother-cell of 
the fritillary by this interesting circumstance, that the hyaloplasm 
produced in excess and eliminated from the side of the funicular bundle 
coagulates on the wall of the nucleus as a substance which leaves a 
residue on a filter. In the embryo-sac of Hellehorus niger (the Christmas 
rose) the difference is remarkable in the quantity of the products of 
reabsorption not used uj) in the sac ; the appearance of the products 
of reabsorption coinciding exactly with the cessation of assimilation in 
the embryo-sac. All the evidence goes to show that the diastases arise 
as the result of the disorganization of the parietal cells of the embryo-sac. 
Behaviour of the Nucleus in the lower Plants.f — M. P. A. 
Dangeard has determined by observation that in the lowest plants in 
which sexual reproduction takes place, the act consists in a fusion of 
the nuclei of the male and female cells, whether the male and female 
elements possess only a single nucleus, as in Sijnchytrium Taraxaci, or 
several, as in Ancylistes Closterii, The same result was obtained in 
Vampyrella. 
(2) Other Cell-contents (including” Secretions!. 
Calcium phosphate in Sphaerocrystals.J — Herr A. Hansen suggests 
that the purpose of calcium phosphate in the vital phenomena of plants, 
may be to render albumin and globulin soluble in water. The formation 
of spha3rocrystals appears not to depend on a simple separation of the 
salt, but to be a result of the decomposition of protoplasm. 
Colouring matter of the Integument. § — In continuation of the 
observations of Schimper and Courchet on the colouring-matters of 
flowers and ripe fruits, M. L. Claudel has made a series of similar 
observations on the nature of the pigments of the sporoderm (integu- 
ment of the seed), in a number of Angiosperms belonging to many 
different orders. He finds that these pigments may either impregnate 
the cell-walls or fill the cell-cavity ; and these latter again may be 
either solid substances or may be in solution in the cell-sap. In the 
* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxxvi. (1880) pp. 346-54. Cf. this Journal, 1880, 
p. 239. t Comptes Rendus, cix. (1889) pp. 202-4. 
X Flora, xlvii. (1889) pp. 408-14. Cf. this Journal, 18s^9, p. 773. 
^ Comptes Rendus, cix. (1889) [>p. 238-41. 
