ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
537 
Distribution of Cane Sugar.* — -Herron E. Sclmize and S. Frankfurt 
have determined the presence of cane sugar in the most various organs 
of a great variety of plants, though the quantity is seldom large. . It 
occurs in large quantities in the pollen of Gorylus Avellana and Pinns 
sylveslris. It may serve either as a direct food-material or as a reserve- 
substance. Before passing through the cell-wall it is probably converted 
into the more readily diffusible glucose. 
Diastatic Ferment in Beet.j — Herr M. Gonnermann finds, as the 
result of chemical experiments, clear evidence of the presence of an 
enzyme in the root of the beet. 
(3) Structure of Tissues. 
Protoplasmic Connections between Parenchyme-Cells.J — Herr A. 
Meyer insists that the statements of Terletzki and Kienitz-Gerloff § of 
the existence of broad protoplasm-bands connecting the adjacent cells 
of the parenchymatous tissue in Filices and Augiosperms rests on 
erroneous observation, due to the use of misleading technical methods. 
Meyer maintains that the alleged bands of protoplasm are in reality 
detached portions of the closing membranes of the pits. 
Dignified CelhWalls.|] — From observations made by Herr H. C. 
Schellenberg on a variety of woody plants, it appears that the firmness 
of different kinds of woods is by no means dependent on the extent of 
lignification of the cell-membranes ; nor does this character determine 
the extensibility or the power of absorption of the wood. The lignifi- 
cation invariably takes place while the cell still contains protoplasm ; 
when the cell is dead, the process ceases. Cell-division can take place 
only as long as the cell-wall is not lignified ; the formation of callus 
occurs only in unlignified cells ; no increase of surface ensues when the 
membrane is once lignified. The purpose of the lignification is, accord- 
ing to the author, neither the conduction of water nor increased firmness, 
but the stoppage of growth, in order that the plant may permanently 
retain the form it has acquired. 
Polystely in Dicotyledons.^ — Mr. D. T. Gwynne-Yaughan~adds to 
the small number of cases hitherto described of polystely among Dico- 
tyledons the runners of certain tropical species of Nymphmacem. Four 
or five groups of vascular tissue run through the lacunar fundamental 
tissue, each consisting of three or four vascular bundles grouped round 
a common centre where their xylems are confluent. 
Structure of Myoporacese and Allied Orders.** — M. J. Briquet 
describes the structural peculiarities of this natural order of Gamopetake, 
viz. : — the peculiar structure of certain trichomes ; the spiral vessels and 
tracheids in the secondary wood ; the fact that the periderm is hypo- 
dermal in the stem, while it is pericyclic in the root ; the secretion- 
* Zeitschr. f. Phys. Cliem., xs. pp. 511-56. See Bot. Centralbl., Beili., vi. (1S96) 
p. 111. 
f Chem. Zeit., xix. (1895) p. 1806. See Journ. Cliem. Soc., 1896, Abstr., p. 381. 
% Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xiv. (1896) pp. 154-8 (1 pi.). 
§ Cf. this Journal, 1891, p. 359. 
|| Jabrb. f. wiss. Bot. (Pfeffer u. Strasburger). xxix. (1896) pp. 237-66. 
% Ann. Bot., x. (1896) pp. 289-91. 
** Ann. Sci. Phys. et Nat., i. (1896) pp. 277-8. 
1896 ‘ 2 p 
