ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
381 
BOTANY. 
A. GENERAL, including- the Anatomy and Physiology 
of the Phanerogamia. 
a. Anatomy. 
(1) Cell-structure and Protoplasm. 
Cells and Energids.* * * § — Prof. J. Sachs points out the confusion which 
has resulted from the various meanings in which the word “cell” has 
been used by different writers. The vital properties do not reside in 
the cell-nucleus alone, nor in the protoplasm alone which surrounds it, 
but in the two together ; and to this compound structure he proposes to 
apply the term energid. An energid may be destitute of a cell-wall 
(primordial cell), or each energid may be inclosed in its own cell- 
wall (ordinary cells), or a number of energids may be inclosed in the 
same cell-wall (multinucleated cells). It is exclusively on the multi- 
plication in the number of energids that all growth depends. 
C2) Other Cell-contents (including: Secretions}. 
Chemistry of Chlorophyll-t — Mr. E. Schunek describes the product 
resulting from the action of alkalies on chlorophyll, which he terms 
alkachlorophyll. It exhibits in solution a remarkable degree of perma- 
nence when exposed to the combined action of air and light, as com- 
pared to chlorophyll. It shows no signs of crystalline structure, is 
quite insoluble in boiling water, but easily soluble in alcohol, ether, 
chloroform, benzol, anilin, and carbon disulphide ; it is insoluble in 
petroleum ether. Its solutions have a brilliant green colour with a 
pronounced bluish tinge and a marked red fluorescence. The ethereal 
solution shows no less than six absorption bands. 
Formation of Starch.f — From observations made on plants belonging 
to a large number of natural orders of Angiosperms, Herr J. C. Konings- 
berger comes to the following conclusions : — Starch may be formed either 
from pre-existing leucoplasts, or directly by the activity of the proto- 
plasm. The former process, which is probably the general one, is more 
characteristic of Monocotyledons, the latter of Dicotyledons. In Dico- 
tyledons there is, in consequence, a reduction of the chromatophore- 
system in comparison with the leucoplasts ; the chromatoplasts may even 
entirely disappear. The first stage in the formation of a starch-grain is 
probably a deposition of amylodextrin. Both leucoplasts and (in higher 
plants) the protoplasm possess the power of polymerizing the carbo- 
hydrates with lower into carbohydrates with higher molecular weights, 
which constitute the definite form of the reserve food-materials. 
Proteids of Maize.§ —Mr. B. H. Chittenden and Mr. T. B. Osborne 
have carefully investigated the proteids of the seed of Zea Mays, and find 
* Flora, lxxv. (1892) pp. 57-63. 
t Proc. Roy. Soc. 1. (1892) pp. 302-17 (1 fig.). Cf. this Journal, 1889, p. 539. 
% ‘ Bijdr. tot d. Kenn. d. Zetmeelvorming b. d. Angiospermen,’ Utrecht, 1891 
(l pi.). See Bot. Centralbl., xlix (1892) p. 47. 
§ Amer. Chern. Journ., xiii. (1891) pp. 453-68, 529-52; xiv. (1892) pp. 20-44. 
Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 58. 
