770 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
grandijlora , gathered in the Keeling Islands in 1888, germinated at Kew 
after having been kept dry for nearly two years, and then placed in sea- 
water, where they remained floating for twelve months, before being 
placed in conditions favourable to germination. 
Longevity of Bulbils.* — M. M. Gandoger records an instance of 
the retention of the power of germination by bulbils of Allium roseum 
after the bulbs had been preserved for more than fifteen years. 
(2) Nutrition and Growth (including 1 Movements of Fluids). 
Absorption and Elimination of Solid Substances by Cells.f — Herr 
W. Pfeffer has investigated the conditions under which the absorption of 
solid substances can be effected by naked (primordial) cells, the obser- 
vations having been made chiefly on the Myxomycetes, especially on 
Chondrioderma difforme. The protoplasm has, apparently, very little 
power of selection, substances which are useless, as well as those which 
are nutrient, being taken up, and the power of absorption, or of diffu- 
sion through the parietal utricle, appears to depend entirely on the 
motion of the particles of protoplasm amongst themselves, and is not in 
any way dependent on irritation. If not immediately dissolved, these 
foreign substances remain, for a shorter or longer period, either in the 
protoplasm or in the vacuoles. In the elimination of those which are 
not available for nutrition, the protoplasm appears to have much more 
selective power than in their absorption ; some organic substances, such 
as Navicula and Pandorina, being thrown out by the plasmodes after 
remaining in them for about ten hours, as well as inorganic substances ; 
while others are permanently retained. The protoplasm of cells inclosed 
in a cell-wall can only absorb or eliminate solid particles under excep- 
tional conditions. 
Assimilation and Transpiration.^ —M. H. Jumelle gives the details 
of various experiments on assimilation and transpiration, the follow- 
ing being the principal results obtained. The absence of carbonic acid 
in the atmosphere, in the light, accelerates transpiration. It is the 
arrest of assimilation which produces an augmentation of transpiration 
in the light. The presence of carbonic acid, in the light, does not affect 
transpiration of a plant, if this plant be deprived of chlorophyll. The 
fact, then, is amply proved that, in the light, the absence of carbonic 
acid accelerates the transpiration of plants, this acceleration being 
explained on the ground that the energy of the radiations absorbed by 
the chlorophyll, being no longer employed on the decomposition of the 
carbonic acid, is devoted to transpiration. 
Assimilation in Umbellifer8e.§ — M. G. de Lamarliere gives a table 
in which the assimilation of carbonic acid in three other species of 
Umbelliferse is compared with that in Angelica sylvestris. Certain differ- 
ences in the intensity of this assimilation can be explained, according 
to the author, by the comparative anatomy of the leaves. The following 
* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxxviii. (1891) p. 244. 
f Abliandl. Sachs. Gesell. Wise., xvi. (1890) pp. 149-83 (1 pi.). See Bot. Ztg., 
xlix. (1891) p. 332. 
% Rev. Gen. de Bot. (Bonnier), iii. (1891) pp. 241-8, 293-305. Cf. this Journal, 
1889, p. 669. § Comptes Rendus, cxiii. (1891) pp. 230-2. 
