544 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
BOTANY. 
A. GENERAL, including the Anatomy and Physiology 
of the Phanerogamia. 
a. Anatomy. 
(1) Cell-structure and Protoplasm. 
Energy of Living Protoplasm.* — Herr O. Loew gives a detailed 
synopsis of the present state of our knowledge of the formation, 
composition, structure, and functions of protoplasm in living cells, both 
in non-chlorophyllous and in chlorophyllous plants. He calculates that 
some microbes may produce a trillion of cells from a single one in the 
course of 24 hours. A great number of details are given with regard 
to the nutritive properties for bacteria of different organic substances ; 
these are classified under four heads : — those which are good, moderate, 
and bad sources of carbon, and those from which bacteria are unable to 
obtain any carbon. In the albumen of chlorophyllous plants, neither 
the nitrogen nor the sulphur is combined with oxygen ; a reduction of 
the nitrates and sulphates must, therefore, have taken place, as in the 
lower fungi. Asparagin is one of the most widely distributed of the 
intermediate substances in the production of protoplasm. As a rule it 
increases in the seedling with the decrease of the carbohydrates. The 
access of air is indispensable for the formation of asparagin and of 
protoplasm, but not for the action of peptonising ferments. 
Structure of Cellulose and Chitin.f — As the result of a very careful 
study of the minute structure of cellulose and chitin, Herr 0. Biitschli 
comes to the following conclusions : — The honeycomb structure observed 
in protoplasm may occur also in crystallisable substances. He was unable 
absolutely to determine whether the structure of the cell-membrane is 
reticulate, or whether it results from a peculiar combination of small 
particles or globulites. It is possible for both structures to occur in the 
same substance, as he demonstrated experimentally. The honeycomb- 
like structure may disappear on drying, from the coalescence of the 
walls of the meshes; but the meshes appear again at the same spots 
when water again reaches them. The suggestion is made of a possible 
new theory of swellingandependent of the micellar hypothesis. 
(2) Other Cell-contents (including 1 Secretions). 
Proteids of Wheat.J — Miss M. O’Brien has studied the disposition 
and the function of the aleurone-grains in wheat. She supports the 
theory of Weyl that gluten is formed by the action of a ferment on the 
myosin which is the chief proteid of wheat. The aleurone-grains do 
* Bull. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, 1891, pp. 43-67. See Bot. Centralbl., lxii. (1895) 
p. 347. 
f Verliandl. Naturhist. Yer. Heidelberg, 1894, 63 pp. and 2 pis. See Bot. 
Centralbl., lxii. (1895) p. 387. 
t Ann. Bot., ix. (1895) pp. 171-226. Cf. this Journal, 1892, p. 809; 1894, p. 78. 
