On Certain Plastids, with Special Reference to the 
Protein Bodies of Zea, Ricinus, and Conopholis. 
BY . 
DAVID M. MOTTIER, 
Professor of Botany in Indiana University. 
With Plate XV. 
I N a recent volume of this journal (vol. xxiii, p. 91) the writer showed 
that leucoplasts and chloroplasts in certain plants were developed from 
small granular or rod-shaped primordia present in meristematic tissues, 
such primordia having been frequently referred to in the literature as 
mitochondria, chondrioconts, chondriosomes, &c. He maintained that 
chloroplasts and leucoplasts were morphologically alike ; that their 
primordia were permanent organs of the cell. He endeavoured to show 
also that in the same cells, along with the primordia of leucoplasts and 
chloroplasts, other similar bodies were present which, in very young cells, 
could not be distinguished from the primordia of the above-named plastids, 
and which did not develop into these plastids. Merely for the sake of 
clearness and brevity these bodies were referred to as chondriosomes. In 
certain Liverworts, as Anthoceros , Marchantia , & c., similar bodies were 
described and figured which existed in the cells along with the chloroplasts, 
as had been pointed out by other observers. The term chondriosome was 
applied to these bodies for the same reason. No function was definitely 
ascribed to these bodies, but it was suggested that they were probably 
concerned in certain processes of metabolism (Mottier, 1918, p. 112 ). 
With this thought in mind a study has been made of the development 
of protein granules in Zea Mays and Ricimts communis , and of certain 
bodies giving a protein reaction with the usual microchemical tests in 
the phanerogamic parasite Conopholis americana , (L. f.) Wallr. 
The technique used in this study was the same as published in detail 
in my former paper. It may be added that the post-chromizing part of 
the process was found to be unnecessary. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXV. No. CXXXIX. July, 1921.] 
