On the Function of Laticiferous Tubes, 
BY 
PERCY GROOM, B.A., 
Frank Smart Student, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 
With Plate XL 
T HE nature of the functions performed by laticiferous 
tubes has long been the subject of keen discussion. 
Trecul regarded the laticiferous system as comparable with 
the venous system of animals. Richard, Treviranus, and Von 
Mohl compared it with the liver or salivary glands. Faivre 1 
regards the tubes as food-reservoirs. According to Schullerus 2 
and Treub 3 the tubes conduct the products of assimilation, at 
least in Euphorbia. The three last-named observers arrived 
at their conclusions by noting that the latex contained useful 
substances such as proteids, starch, sugar, etc. They then 
made experiments to prove that these substances were used 
as food by the plant. Their researches have been criti- 
cised by A. F. W. Schimper . 4 It may briefly be said that 
1 Faivre, Recherches sur la circulation et sur le role du latex dans le Ficus 
elastica, in Ann. des Sc. Nat. ser. 5, t. X, p. 33, 1886 ; Id. fitudes physiologiques sur 
le latex dumurier blanc. Ibid. t. X, 1869 ; Id. in Comptes Rendus, t. LXXXVIII, 
1879. 
2 Schullerus, Die physiolog. Bedeutung d. Milchsaftes von Euphorbia Lathy ris, 
in Abhandl. d. bot. Vereins d. Provinz Brandenburg. XXIV, p. 26, 1882-3. 
3 Treub, in Ann. du Jardin bot. de Buitenzorg, t. III. 
4 Schimper, Ueber Bildung u. Wanderung der Kohlhydrate in den Laubblattern, 
in Bot. Zeit. 1885. 
Annals of Botany, Vol. III. No. X. May 1889 ] 
