78 
36 or 40 mm, which was in twenty-three days from the date of 
sowing, a portion of the first green leaf of one of them was 
examined. Various fixing solutions were employed in these 
experiments, such as Flemming’s chrom-osmium-acetic acid 
Hermann’s platinochloride mixture, absolute alcohol, &c.; while 
for stains Flemming’s saffranin - gentian - violet - orange -, and 
fuchsinmethylgreen were made use of.T 
‘lhe accompanying figure (fig. 1, A), reproduced from 
Eriksson’s plate 1, fig. 2, 6, shows what he saw. A cell of the 
host-plant whose nucleus has stained red is filled by mycoplasmic 
material, in which two large vacuoles are seen one above the 
other below the nucleus. 
Fig. 1, B, t. 1, f. 5, shows three cells from a little older seed. 
ling (forty-four days after sowing), in which the second green 
leaf was unfolding. The upper cell is seen to be filled by myco- 
plasm, the middle half filled, and the lowermost quite devoid 
of it. Many hundreds of sections have been cut by the authors, 
of which only a certain number show the mycoplasm present, 
When present, it is found to fill more or less of the lumen of 
the cells, and to contain granules, which are coloured pale-violet 
by Flemming’s staining reagent, and dark blue by Heidenhain's 
haematoxylon. Eriksson regards it as being something intermed:- 
ate between ordinary protoplasm and typical fungus-protoplasm. 
Sections of leaves from plants of Bromus inermis and Festuca 
arundinacea, which have been under observation for many years, 
and which had had no Uredo upon them for certainly the last ten, 
showed no mycoplasm. Neither could it be found in those vane- 
ties of Wheat which are seldom attacked by Uredo glumarum, 
notably Bart Trimenia, Medeah, and Madonna. 
The existence of a fungoid parasite in the tissue of its host in 
the form of a plasma is not a new fact, or one confined to the 
cereal Uredines. The well-known instance of Plasmodiophora 
will at once suggest itself. Pseudocommis, again, about which 
such a copious literature has sprung up during the last few years, 
affords another instance. With this, however, it has been sug- 
gested some of these bodies may be products made by the action 
of the reagents employed, and that they are tannin and its deriva- 
tives. Still, whatever may be the case with Pseudocomms 
which for the most part occurs late in the life of the cells of the 
plant, one would hardly expect to find tannin in the first green 
leaf of a cereal. 
More recently, Zukal speaks of finding “ amceboid plasmatic 
bodies” in the cells of living Barley-leaves, in his work on the 
Rust-diseases of the cereals of Austria-Hungary, as quoted by 
+ The various solutions are given in the paper, p. 7. 
