BOTANY
1904
Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society
BOTANY GENERAL, Including the Anatomy and Physiology of Seed Plants. CYtOlogY , including Cell-Contents. Bivalence of the Chromosomes.* -J. P. Lotsy discusses, with the aid of diagrams, the question of the behaviour of the chromosomes in the reducing divisions of animals and plants. He concludes that there is a true qualitative reducing division, since while the somatic cells have bivalent, the sexual cells have only univalent chromosomes. Amitosis in Plants.-W. v. Wasielewskif and B. NcmecJ
more »
... e investigated the effects of chloral hydrate in dilute solution upon thc division of the nucleus, especially in the roots of seedlings. Both find that treatment with this reagent causes very abnormal nuclear divisions and cren mnltinucleate cells, but that if the treatment is not prolonged, the nuclei and cells return later to their normal state and dividc in ;t typical way. Wasielewski believes, however, that the abnormal divisions arc rcal direct divisions (amitoses), while Nemec is of thc opinion that they are merely abnormal mitoses in which, however, the processes of chromosome formation and splitting still occur. Nemec found that by f nsion of the abnormally produced nuclei, there were produced nuclei nit11 a double number of chromosomes ; presumably a reduction-process occurs later, for such double numbers soon ceased to be seen. Reduction Division in Ferns. §-R. P. Gregory has examiiiccl the early stayes in spore-formation in various members of the Polypodiaeez, and finds that the essential features of the reduction-phenomena recently described by Farmer and Moore are present in ferns. Tlie author describes the details of the reduction division in the spore-mother-cells. Thc result is a transverse true reduction division of the bivalent chromosomes which characterise the heterotype division. He then proceeds to ii discussion of the significance of the reduction division in connection with JIendelian segregation. Viewed from this standpoint the occurrence of a qualitative reduction in plants, as well as in animals, is extremely important as affording a possible provision for that purity of the gametes, in respect of allelomorphic characters, which is demanded by JIendel's hypothesis. Formation of Anthocyan.li-T. Ichimura has studied the forination of this pigment to which are due the different shades of red and blue found in plant organs, for instance, in the skin of many ripe fruits, in sonic young shoots, and in various flowers. The object studied was the * Flora, xciii. ( 1904) pp. 65-86 (19 figs.). t Jahrb. wiss. Bot., xxxix. (1904) pp. 581-606 (figs. in text). i Tom. ait., pp. 645-730 (figs. in text).
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2818.1904.tb01607.x
fatcat:uccjn4u3hfdfzhezu7vgslz6sa