552 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Saccharose and Glucose in Sugar-cane.* — Herr F. A. F. C. Went 
lias carried out an elaborate series of experiments on the conditions 
most favourable for the formation of saccharose and glucose in the 
sugar-cane. The largest amount of glucose is always found near the 
apex of the stem, while the apical meristem itself contains no reducing 
sugar. In the stem and roots, glucose is especially abundant in the 
parts which are growing most rapidly, decreasing as they grow older. 
Fructose occurs also in the unripe sugar-cane. Saccharose is to be 
found, especially in parts where growth in length has ceased, gradually 
increasing in all the internodes. In the apex of the root there is but 
little accumulation of saccharose, the sugar being here inverted in order 
to serve for the growth of the root. During growth the greater part of 
the saccharose is therefore found above ground. In the leaves of the 
sugar-cane, saccharose, glucose, fructose, and starch are formed. 
Hew Organic Substance in Woody Tissue. f — In sawdust which 
has been agitated for several days with 1 per cent, potassium hydrate, 
filtered, and treated with a slight excess of hydrochloric acid, M. G. 
Guerin finds a copious flocculent precipitate. This substance is entirely 
free from iron, but contains appreciable amounts of manganese, phos- 
phorus, and sulphur. The author regards it as a nuclein-like substance, 
and believes that in this form manganese is always present in wood. 
Peculiar Cell-contents in Potamogeton praelongus.J — Dr.B.Lidforss 
has studied the peculiar bodies found in the epidermal cells of this plant 
by Lundstrom, and described by him as oil-bodies or elaioplasts. He 
finds Lundstrom’s account to require correction in several points. They 
are composed of a substance which has a greater specific gravity than 
water, and which cannot, therefore, belong to the ordinary class of oils, 
whether fixed or essential. This substance occurs also in the cell-sap in 
a nearly saturated solution. Dr. Lidforss investigated with great care the 
microchemical reactions of the substance, which are given in detail, and 
comes to the conclusion that it belongs to the class of aromatic aldehydes. 
Proteolytic Enzyme of Yeast Extract.? — Herren M. Hahn and L. 
Geret confirm the statement of Buchner of the presence in yeast extract 
of an enzyme which has the power of rendering albumin soluble. 
Different kinds of yeast yield solutions containing this proteolytic 
enzyme, and similar solutions can be obtained from tuberculosis and 
typhus bacilli. The yeast extract, as obtained by Buchner’s method, is 
nn opalescent liquid, and even after several filtrations through paper and 
Kieselguhr filters, contains isolated yeast-cells. 
(3) Structure of Tissues. 
Fundamental Tissue of the Leaf. ||— Prof. F. W. C. Areschoug dis- 
cusses several questions connected with the anatomy, development, and 
physiology of the mesophyll of the leaf, basing his results mainly on an 
examination of the leaves of Iris neglecta, Sambucus nigra , Asarum 
* Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. (Pfeffer u. Strasburger), xxxi. (1898) pp. 289-344 (1 pi.), 
t Comptes Kendus, exxv. (1897) pp. 311-2. 
t Bot. Centralbl., lxxiv. (1898) pp. 305-13, 337-43, 372-7. 
§ Ber. Deutsch. Chem. Gesell., xxxi. (1898) p. 205. See Journ. Chera. Soe. 
Abstr., pp. 245-6. Cf. this Journal, 1897, p. 414. 
|| Act. Univ. Lund, xxxiii. (1897) 46 pp. and 5 pis. (German). 
