16 
REPORT ON BOTANY, MDCCCXLI : 
act at all, or at all events only in a trifling degree, upon the 
former, tannic acid contracting it a little ; the latter, how- 
ever, is not only contracted by it, but combines with it. 
This excellent work presents decided answers on many dis- 
puted points. 
I may here be permitted to add something respecting the 
starch in plants. I have illustrated the changes of the gra- 
nules of starch in the 16th Table of the leones Anatomiem 
Botanicce. The granules of potatoes were burst by warm 
water, and yielded a thick fluid mass, which assumed a blue 
colour on the application of iodine, the same as the enclosing 
integument. It follows from this, that each granule of starch 
contains a thick fluid kernel, as Easpail asserted, although 
the integuments consist of many layers, as may indeed be 
distinctly seen in many granules of starch, just as Fritzsche 
first observed. As this thick fluid kernel assumes a blue 
colour on the application of iodine, like the integument, there 
is no reason to doubt that it consists of any thing else than a 
mass of amylum. It is an ordinary occurrence, that this mass 
is changed into gum or dextrine, by being strongly heated, 
or by a lengthened rubbing with water, as Raspail applied it, 
and a similar transformation takes place on the more usual 
application of nitric acid. The experiment should be per- 
formed as soon as the bursting has taken place, in order to 
avoid any change occurring in the starch. The integument 
of the granules is frequently found torn after germination ; 
see fig. 9 and 10 of the same table, compared with fig. 8. 
Unformed thick fluid starch I first found in the bulbous-formed 
roots of Balep, subsequently also in the bulbous-formed roots 
of the common Orchis latifolia, before and after blossoming, 
as is seen in fig. 13 of the same table. Later, I also found 
amylum in the roots of Orchis pyramidalis, and in the roots 
of Orchis latifolia^ long after blossoming. As usual in granules. 
Hoots of Balep are also met with, that contain granules of 
starch. It seems, therefore, that the unformed matter is 
capable of transforming itself into granules. A thick fluid 
mass, which cannot be coloured by iodine, mixed with large 
granules of starch, is also found in the seed of Phaseolus 
408 
