82 
Walter Gardiner. 
vations in Ihis direction were as far as one could see from Ihe text, made 
upon sections of material which were simply mounted in expressed cell-sap, 
sugar solution, or dilute glycerine, one obviously comes to the conclusion 
thal his results were obtained with little previous preparation of the tissue. 
Alluding to the results of Tangl and myself who had both of us failed to 
detect the presence of protoplasmic threads in cell-walls without at least 
previous swelling, I slated that I was quite unable to see any network or 
retieulation of any kind in the epidermal cells of Rhododendron and Dra¬ 
caena, but at the same time I described appearances in those cells, which 
had probably misled Professor Frommann, namely that in the upper and side 
walls of the cells of Dracaena, what appears to be a reticulale structure can 
be observed, but that such structure was caused by the presence of a number 
of waxy granules imbedded in the cuticle which were apprecially acted on 
by ether or boiling Alcohol and dissolved in a 5 per cent solution of Potash. 
In Rhododendron in the same way there is a distinct striation of the 
cutieularised layers, which cuticle however does not abut immediately on 
to the cell cavity, but is separated from it by a thin layer of unaltered 
cellulose. 
Ei.sbiro had also noted open pits in the cells of the potal of Nierem- 
bergia gracilis and in the cells of the petiole of Ficus elastica he had found 
thal "what has been sometimes described by authors, especially in growing 
tissues, as intercellular spaces and middle lamellae in the cellulose, were 
revealed to be in a number of instances, accumulations of living matter 
wedged in between the plant cells.” These results were obtained by the 
use of Gold Chloride and Silver nitrate. The latter reagcnt gave him the 
best results and he observed that when a section of the petiole of Ficus 
had been thus treated, and exposed to light, the cell-walls were seen to 
exhibit a number of exceedingly small dark stained areas (cellulose) in which 
was a reticulum of non-staining protoplasm. I showed first of all that this 
staining was only confined to the cut surfaces and was not present in the 
entire thickness of the wall, and thal further the w hole appearance could be 
entirely removed by brushing the sections with a camel-hair brush. Finali y 
I demonstraled that the patches were granules of reduoed silver, which had 
been thus reduced by certain of the cell contents, w'hich I showed to be 
tarmiu. I also showed that as far as my results had been carried I was 
forced to conclude that Silver nitrate and Gold Chloride as usually employed, 
were unsatisfactory for botanical research, and had given me no assistanee 
in the study of the continuity of the protoplasm. 
1t only remains for me now to deal with IIii.i.house’s paper. The method 
employ ed by this observer was briefly as follow r s. Sections of fresh material 
or of material which had lain for some days in absolute alcohol, w'ere cut 
with a razor wetted with alcohol. They were then placed on a slide and 
treated for some minutes w ith dilute Sulphuric acid which was afterwards 
