PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY.

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gations it would be very desirable that the objects shouldbe carefully distinguished. What applies to the Algaecannot necessarily be assumed as holding good in thecase of the Phanerogamia, and still less, what is observedin Fungi , as the author has done. His observations uponthe cells of the ripe and unripe berries of Solatium nigrumare valuable, but this is a distinct subject, and one whichmay be of importance as regards the ripening of thefruit, and it would have been very desirable for theauthor to have instituted a minute comparison in thispoint of view. Again, the title, 1 The Life of the Vege-table Cell,’ says too much. My friend Hartig knows asmuch of the life of the cell as I do, i. e. nothing. Lifeis motion, arising from internal excitation, and we areunacquainted with the movements of the fluids in thecell which produce development.

Schleiden says, in his ‘ Principles of Scientific Botany,’p. 200 : “ I believe that even in the youngest conditionof the cell, a delicate membrane and a substance whichis not colorable by iodine may be distinguished; theformer of which completely incloses the cytoblasts.Mold has apparently (Bot. Zeit., 1844, No. 15 et seq.)misunderstood me, in relying upon an expression whichwas certainly ill-chosen by me, and by which I intended toillustrate this point, when I first published my discoveries.But as soon as this primary membrane of the cell hasbecome even slightly separated from the cytoblast by itsexpansion, the whole of its inner surface is very frequentlyfound covered with a delicate coating of semifluid (veryoften circulating in reticularly-anastomosing currents) mu-cilage, which is sometimes granular, sometimes perfectlyhomogeneous and pellucid, but may always be renderedvisible either by nitric acid, alcohol, or iodine; this is Mold’sprimordial utricle.” The granulo-cellular mass, calledthe cytoblast, certainly always appears surrounded by adelicate membrane. At first this mass appears compact,but subsequently it becomes divided, and then the motionof the small granules begins to be visible. In the cells