Notes. 
157 
carbohydrates (polysaccharides) which are levorotatory, and which, 
on treatment with an acid, hydrolyse to fructose solely or at any rate 
in the main. 
Leclerc du Sablon does not mention submitting the solution of the 
carbohydrate he extracted from the bulb to the polarimeter, which is 
the simplest and most satisfactory method of distinguishing between 
dextrin and inulin. 
As far as investigations have gone, the inulins of plants can be 
arranged in three classes: 
(1) That found in the Compositae and allied orders, which is pre¬ 
cipitated in the tissues by alcohol in the form of the well-known 
spherocrystals, and which is practically insoluble in cold water, 
requiring a temperature of go° to 55 0 for its solution. 
(2) That characteristic of many Monocotyledons, e. g. Sctlla, Yucca , 
Phleum , and the plant now before us; it is precipitated in an 
amorphous form, in the tissues, as a thick lining to the inside of 
the cell-wall and is readily soluble in cold water. 
(3) That found in the bulb-scales of species of Galanthus and 
Leucojum , which is precipitated in the tissues in an amorphous 
form, and which requires a temperature as high as 8o° for its 
solution \ 
On the other reserve-organs mentioned by Leclerc du Sablon as 
containing dextrin, I have not much to say. Only one of them, 
Asphodel, have I asserted to contain inulin, as does likewise Chevas- 
telon, and in all probability it does store an inulin similar in kind 
to that of the Hyacinth. In my paper the bulbs of Lilium and 
Tulipa are mentioned, among others, as not responding to the inulin 
tests, and so it is quite possible that the carbohydrate obtained from 
these by Leclerc du Sablon is dextrin in nature. 
J. PARKIN. 
Cambridge Botanical Laboratory, 
December , 1899. 
FORMATION OF AN IRREGULAR ENDODERMIS IN 
THE ROOTS OF RUSCUS sp.—The root in which this irregular 
structure occurred was quite young, only a few xylem-elements in 
each group being lignified. As the sketch shows, there were fourteen 
1 Fischer, H., Cohn’s Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen, 1898, Bd. viii, 
Heft 1, pp. 89,101,102. Ehrhardt, Abstract Bot. Centralb., 1894, Bd. lx, p. 207. 
Parkin, loc. cit., pp. 59 and 64. 
