Tracheids in the Node of Equisetum maximum.

129
Fig. 15. Slratioles. A transverse section through the root near the apex.
Fig. 16. TAmnochnris. A longitudinal section through a young root.
I^ig. 17. Limnochans. A longitudinal section through a somewhat older root.
Fig. 18. Limnochans. A longitudinal section through a fairly old root,
r-ig. U). Liiiinocharis. A transverse section through a root some distance
from the apex.

EXPLANATION OP THE LETTERING.

/•'., plerome. fb., periblem. cal., root cap. ed., endodermis. /»-., pericyclu.
(/., dermatogen. ct., cortex.

NOTES FROM THE CAMBRIDGE BOTANY SCHOOL.

II.—TRACHRIDS IN THE NODAL REGION OF

EQUISETUM MAXIMUM.
BY M. G . SYKES,
Girton College, Cambridge.
[TEXT-FIG 26, 1—5.]

W HEN cutting transverse sections through a node of Equisctnin

maximum in order to observe the indications of secondary
thickening noted by Cormac,' some very curious larjje reticulately
pitted tracheids were observed in the lumen of a carinal canal just
below the nodal region.
Cormac pointed out that, in view of StrasburjJer's^ statement
that water is conveyed through the lumen of the carinal canals,
and as these canals are not continuous from one internode to the
next, some elements must be provided to convey the water from
one canal to another at the node. He suggested that the e.xpla-
nation of the proliferation of tracheids at the node (by secondary
thickening), might lie in the necessity for such provision.
It seems probable that the peculiarly large elements shown in
the accompanying figures may have some special connection with
the transport of water between the canals of adjacent internodes.
In transverse sections, a little distance above the node a few
reticulately pitted elements are seen on either side of the vascular
bundle; as the sections approach the node these elements increase
in number and size and begin to project into the carinal canal
(Text-Fig. 26, 1 and 2). The canal is soon filled up by them ; at the
point of entrance of the leaf-trace, which is also the region of forking
> Cormac. Annals of Botany, Vol. VII., 1893, p. 63.
' Strasburger, Leitungsbahnen, pp. 435-438.
I3O M. G. Sykes.
of the bundle, a very considerable amount of xylem is present. Just
below tbis point a space begins again to be visible, and those ofthe
xylem elements whicb project into this space are of enormous size
and of marked peculiarity (Text-Fig. 26, I, 2, 4). In two cases
(3 and 5) a single large tracbeid was fotmd entirely filling up the
space. Sections below tbis region show that the space is the top of
the carinal canal of the next internode and a gradual transition to
the normal internodal structure now occurs.

Fig. 26.
 Tracheids in the Node of Equisetum maximum r 31
Diagram of longitudinal section through node of Equisetum iiin,viiiniw,
O, diaphram of thick-wallcd cells ; C, carinal canals above and below
node ; 7", tracheids at node, some passing out as leaf-trace. (/..).
Part of the same section (enclosed between the broken lines in Fig. 1);
shewing a large number of reticulate tracheids at the node
bulging out above into the canal and passing below the node into large
broken rings of ligniHed tissue. '/>., tyloses from cortical cells bcld.u
node ;; /'.\.,., ring.s
ring.s of
of protoxvlem.
protoxvlem.
3. Tranverse section througli a carinal canal just below a node of
IC. iiin,viiniiin, shewing a single large reticulate element ncarl)- filling
up the lumen. Three .\ylem tracheids are seen at the edge of thi-
ciinal.
4. Transverse section below the node, shewing several reticulate elements
projecting into the lumen of the carinal canal.
5. Transverse section shewing a large meshed reticulum in the lumen
of a carinal canal just above the node.
Longitudinal sections were cut tbroujjb tbe node, and, in one
of tbese, two carinal canals, one above and the otber below tbe
node, happened to be cut (1 and 2). Into tbe lumina of tbese canals
tbe large reticulate elements, wbicb had before been seen in
transverse section, projected, nearly filling up tbe ends of tbe
canals. A considerable number of small reticulate elements, noted
by Cormac, were seen to connect tbe larger elements. In tbe same
section several tyloses were formed by tbe vascular parencbyma,
and projected into tbe lumen of tbe lower canal.'
In order to determine wbetber tbe large reticulately pitted
tracheids were used in conduction, a brancb of Equisetum maximum
was fastened to a vacuum pump, and one end was dipped into a
watery solution of eosin. After two hours tbe solution bad l-eached
tbe top of tbe brancb and sections were tben cut in order to
examine tbe regions stained. In tbe internodes the walls of tbe
canals were very deeply stained, but towards the nodes, {i.e. as tbe
reticulately pitted elements appeared and increased in number),
tbeir stain became very slight, while the reticulate elements all took
the stain. Tbe larger tracheids projecting into tbe top and bottom
of the canal were also stained, but not quite so brightly as tbe
smaller tracheids.
The large xylem elements are of such remarkable character
that it is natural to regard them as serving some special purpose.
Their position, in the extreme ends of tbe canal lumina, certainly
suggests tbem to be of importance in the conduction of water from
canal to canal by means of tbe small reticulate tracheids. In
longitudinal section it is seen that they are continuous with tbe
small tracheids, and some of them, at any rate, must be looked
upon as greatly enlarged extensions of these.-
' Strasburger, loc. cit., p. 437.
» cf. Williamson. Phil. Trans. R, S o c , 1871. PI. 28, Fig. 40.
 132 Notes on Recent Physiological Literature.
Another explanation as to their function might he that they
are water-storing elements, hut this does not seem prohahle in a
plant of the habit oiEquisetum. The eosin experiment also showed
that they were used in conduction.

NOTES ON RECENT PHYSIOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

1.—THE CHEMISTRY OF PHOTO-SYNTHESIS.

H. Euler. Zur Kcntniss der Assimilationsvorgiingc I., Ber. d. dcut. chem.

Gescll. XXXVII., p. 3411, 1904.
F. Usher and J. Priestley. A study of the mechanism of Carbon Assimilation
in Green Plants. Proe. Roy. Soe., B Vol. 77, p. 369, Jan. 1906.
R. Meldola. The Living Organism as a Chemical Agency: a Review of Some
of the Problems of Photo-synthesis by Growing Plants. Presidential
Address to the Chemieal Society, Jour, of Chem. Soc, April, 1906.

T HE object of this short notice is to direct the attention of

readers to recent papers on the chemical mechanism of CO^-
assimilation. The early view which regarded protoplasm as an
enormous molecule which, in assimilation, took up CO^ directly, on
the one hand and split off sugar on the other hand, has given place
to the newer view, so much more hopeful for investigation, which
holds that, in such functions as respiration and assimilation, we
have to deal with a system of comparatively simple changes
occurring in sequence, and that if we are only clever enough we
shall be able to separate these stages.
Von Baeyer in 1870 first suggested that production of form-
aldehyde was an important stage in photo-synthesis, forming a sort
of turning point between the reduction-processes that formed it
from aqueous carbonic acid and the "condensation"-processes that
caused it to be built up into sugar and starch.
In 1877 Erlenmeyer indicated that formic acid would probably
he the intermediate stage in the reduction-process.
Since that time a number of isolated experiments have been
made on the reduction of COj by light, in vitro as well as in the
plant, but systematic critical investigation has only been taken up
in the last two or three years. Investigation has been directed to
four points, (i.) Does formaldehyde really occur free in the green
assimilating leaf? (ii.) Can COo be reduced by light in vitro in
any way that will help to elucidate the process in the cell ? (iii.)