19 
Function of the Septal Glands in Kniphofia. 
(y) The cell-cavity is occupied by a large central 
vacuole, the mesh work having entirely disappeared. In 
some of the cells the protoplasm has a highly refractive 
and homogeneous appearance ; in others it is granular 
as in the preceding stages. Sometimes the nucleus pro- 
jects into the vacuole, and the perinuclear protoplasm is 
connected with that lining the cell-wall by one or more 
strands ; occasionally it may lie right across the cell. 
(Fig. 10 b.) 
( b ) The disappearance of the meshwork is not confined to 
the epidermis, it occurs also in the sub-epidermal cells, 
though not synchronously ; but just as was the case 
with the starch in the preceding stage, so here, the 
change occurs later, lasts longer, and proceeds gradu- 
ally from the more superficial to the deeper layers ; 
even after the perianth has begun to wither the mesh- 
work is still present in many of the cells. 
All the starch has disappeared from the unmodified cells 
of the septum, but it is still to be found in the central 
axis. 
Such is a brief account of the structural changes, exhibited 
by the gland-cells, during the development of the young bud 
into the fully open flower. There are, however, other slight 
variations in histological appearance, which appear to depend, 
not on the age of the cells, but on their position in the gland. 
Thus those epidermal cells which bound the peripheral 
margin of the lumen (Fig. % p.mi) are smaller than the other 
epidermal cells of the same level, and the changes which they 
display are less marked, e. g. the degeneration of the external 
wall and the deposition of starch are inconsiderable, and the 
meshwork is never prominent. On the other hand, those cells 
which bound the central margin of the lumen (Fig. i c.m.) are 
generally larger than the remaining cells of the same level ; 
the deposition of starch is greater, and its disappearance 
slower, here than elsewhere ; hence in flowers which are either 
opening or fully open, these cells exhibit a less advanced 
stage of activity than the others at that level. 
C 2 
