372 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
pigment or cyanophycin resides, and which alone contains granular 
inclosures of various sizes. No vacuoles could be detected. The 
peripheral coloured protoplasm consists mainly of plastin ; the inclosed 
granules are colourless and unstratified, and are insoluble in alcohol or 
ether, and do not give the ordinary albumen reactions. In the central 
portion are often found one or two bodies agreeing in their appearance 
and their chemical reactions with nucleoles. The mode of cell-division 
appears uniform in the genera named. The new division-wall makes 
its first appearance on the wall of the mother-cell as a circular ridge, 
which then gradually projects into the cell, and finally divides it com- 
pletely in two. This is accompanied by a constriction of the central 
portion of the cell. This central portion cannot, however, in the 
opinion of the author, be correctly described as a nucleus, since it differs 
materially in its properties from ordinary cell-nuclei, although it 
presents the microchemical reactions of nuclein. 
Schizomycetes. 
New Type of Endosporous Bacteria.* — Prof. L. Klein describes a 
previously unobserved mode of endosporous formation of spores in a 
number of bacteria found in marshes, chiefly inhabiting partially decayed 
algae, generally Volvox and Hydrodiciyon. The spore is either terminal 
or median, the first indication of its formation being a swelling of the 
rod, and the protoplasm of this swelling, which always remains in com- 
munication with that of the rest of the rod, assumes a light green tint. 
The entire contents of the swollen part then contracts, separates itself 
from the cell-wall, increases in refrangibility, and gradually assumes 
the form of an endospore, which retains permanently its strong refrangi- 
bility and its blue-green tint. This peculiarity was observed in five 
species, all of them new, to which Dr. Klein gives the names Bacillus de 
Baryanus, B. Solmsiij B. Peroniella, B. macrosporus, and B. limosus. In 
all, except B. Peroniella and limosus, the ripe spore is somewhat bean- 
shaped ; when the spores are terminal the end where they are placed is 
usually somewhat swollen ; when motility was observed the sporiferous 
end was generally anterior. 
The author traces a homology between the mode of formation of 
these spores and that of the cysts of the Flagellatae ; and suggests that 
the Schizomycetes consist of two groups not very closely related to one 
another phylogenetically, one forming endospores and nearer to the 
Flagellatae, while the other may be regarded as Cyanophyceae which 
have become saprophytic in their mode of life and colourless. 
Symbiotic Organism of the Tubercles of Leguminosae.t — Herr B. 
Frank points out that the symbiosis in the tubercles of Leguminosje is 
of an entirely different character from that which occurs in the roots of 
any other plants, except the alder and Elseagnus. The infection always 
takes place from the soil, but in two different ways, either by means of 
hyphae or without them ; the latter is always the case in Lupinus and 
Phaseolus. The infecting hyphae and the hypha-like bodies in the 
meristem of the host which are derived from them, do not differ 
* Ber. Deutscli. Bot. Gesell., vii. (188‘J) Geii.- Versiunml.-Heft, pp. 57-72(1 pi.). 
t 'J'. c., p]i. 832— ItJ. Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 59. 
