A Pathological Anatomical Study of Crystal Cyst 
Formation in Parenchymatous Tissue in the Genus 
Anthurium. 
BY NEW YORK 
rtOTAN*C* L 
J. A. SAMUELS. uaRD b* 
With Plate II and five Figures in the Text. 
I. Introduction. 
U P to the present time, cell and nuclear fusions in somatic cells have 
been regarded from an anatomical standpoint as independent 
phenomena. A recent study of the processes in Anthurium scandens , how¬ 
ever, has afforded the writer an opportunity to observe a relation between 
them which complicates the theoretical conceptions of the subject (46). 
It is well known that in the last decades many investigators have added 
greatly to our knowledge of nuclear and protoplasm fusions in vegetative 
cells, and that their investigations have led to interesting conclusions. One 
need only mention the multiple nuclear fusions in the endosperm of 
many Angiosperms (7), the fusions of the tapetal nuclei in the anthers of 
certain plants (55, 58, 63), the fusions of certain cells in the ovule of Tro- 
paeolum (63), the multinucleate. cells in the procambium and the plerome of 
certain plants, and the formation of a symplast after infection by Synchytrium 
and some Heteroderas (25, 37). 
It would appear that, in vegetative tissue, most of these cases of cell 
and nuclear fusions are generally due directly to the influence of the high 
acidity of the cell or to a certain cell complex. The direct cause, however, 
may be of a different nature ; for example, abnormal physiological condi¬ 
tions. 
None of the cases at present known in which the acidity affects a 
certain part of the tissue are so pronounced as is Anthurium , where large 
cell complexes dissolve, i. e. cell fusion takes place with the formation of 
a symplast and the appearance of a certain number of raphid crystal 
£3 colonies. 
The fusion of two neighbouring cells representing the origin of crystal 
c* cysts in young tissue cannot be discovered without difficulty. The present 
’"“'•publication may therefore serve to illustrate such a case in Anthurium 
*d-j$candens and A. Sellerzerianum. 
" [Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXVII. No. CXLVI. April, 1923.] 
M 
