Chondriosomes ( Mitochondria) and their Significance. 161 
numerous small but unequal-sized vacuoles, one or two nuclei, and 
in addition a number of fairly thick, elongated and irregularly coiled 
filaments which stained black with iron hematoxylin. In most of the 
cells these threads are in one or two places aggregated to form 
dense knots. He says “ Diese Faden konnen nun auf Grund ihres 
Aussehens und ihrer Farbbarkeit nicht wohl etwas anderes sein als 
die von tierischen Zellen bekannten Chondriomiten.” 
Meves’s observations on plant chondriosomes were later con¬ 
firmed and extended by a considerable number of other workers 
to whose papers reference will be made presently. It may be 
noted here, however, that some of the earliest of these adopted 
Goldschmidt’s “chromidial apparatus” view. Beer (1905) observed 
in the tapetum cells of Onagraceae bodies consisting of chromidial 
substance, similar in form to those found by Meves in Nymphcea, 
and stated that they were invariably of nuclear origin, arising 
either from the chromatin and nucleolar substance or from the 
peripheral portions of degenerating nuclei. Tischler (1906) 
described for the tapetum cells of Ribes intermedium rods and 
filaments consisting of rows of deeply staining grains, which he 
considered had migrated from the nucleus into the cytoplasm, so 
that while confirming Meves’s discovery of chondriosomes in plants 
he agreed with Goldschmidt in regarding them as to nuclear origin. 
Von Derschau (1907, 1909) found similar bodies in the tapetum 
and spore mother cells of various Monocotyledons as well as in 
vegetative tissues of Vida fnba, and claimed to have observed in 
some cases portions of the chromatin actually escaping from the 
nucleus, causing protuberances of the nuclear membrane and then 
passing into the cytoplasm outside—part of the chromidial grains 
remained close to the nucleus while the rest though moving to some 
distance still remained in organic connexion with it. It should be 
noted that while Meves observed his “ mitochondria ” only in 
tapetum cells with resting nuclei, Tischler and von Derschau 
observed their “chromidia” in cells with dividing nuclei; von 
Derschau, for instance, describes them in the prophase division of 
pollen mother cells and figures the escape of chromidial substance 
through the nuclear membrane at this stage. It is doubtful whether 
the structures described by Tischler and von Derschau can have 
nothing to do with the mitochondria of Benda and Meves, while 
they also differ in various respects from Goldschmidt’s chromidial 
apparatus. Tischler’s work was soon criticised by Duesberg and 
Hoven (see below), who considered that his view of the nuclear 
origin of the filaments observed in the tapetum cells of Ribes was 
based upon faulty material or observation ; and later Tischler 
himself in a review (Bot. Centralbi., Bd. 119, 1911, p. 276) of 
Pensa’s work (see below) stated that he had come to the conclusion 
that he had in fact worked with degenerating tapetum cells and 
had described phenomena resulting from death of the nucleus and 
having nothing to do with chromidial bodies found in meristematic 
or healthy cells, also that he was in agreement with the conclusions 
meanwhile arrived at by Lundegard (see below). 
More recently, Arnoldi and Bornicke (1911) have described 
chondriosome-like bodies in the jacket-cells around the oosphere of 
Dammam, and in the tapetum cells of the anthers of Larix, Bryonia 
and Cucnmis. In the former case the nucleolus is described as 
becoming angular and finally indefinite in form and passing into a 
