Pelargonium zonale (var. edged with white).—The leaves [page 351] are
clothed with numerous multicellular hairs; some simply pointed; others
bearing glandular heads, and differing much in length. The glands on a
piece of leaf were examined and found to contain only limpid fluid;
most of the water was removed from beneath the covering glass, and a
minute drop of one part of carbonate of ammonia to 146 of water was
added; so that an extremely small dose was given. After an interval of
only 3 m. there were signs of aggregation within the glands of the
shorter hairs; and after 5 m. many small globules of a pale brown tint
appeared in all of them; similar globules, but larger, being found in
the large glands of the longer hairs. After the specimen had been left
for 1 hr. in the solution, many of the smaller globules had changed
their positions; and two or three vacuoles or small spheres (for I know
not which they were) of a rather darker tint appeared within some of
the larger globules. Little globules could now be seen in some of the
uppermost cells of the pedicels, and the protoplasmic lining was
slightly separated from the walls of the lower cells. After 2 hrs. 30
m. from the time of first immersion, the large globules within the
glands of the longer hairs were converted into masses of darker brown
granular matter. Hence from what we have seen with Primula sinensis,
there can be little doubt that these masses originally consisted of
living protoplasm.
A drop of a weak infusion of raw meat was placed on a leaf, and after 2
hrs. 30 m. many spheres could be seen within the glands. These spheres,
when looked at again after 30 m., had slightly changed their positions
and forms, and one had separated into two; but the changes were not
quite like those which the protoplasm of Drosera undergoes. These
hairs, moreover, had not been examined before immersion, and there were
similar spheres in some glands which had not been touched by the
infusion.
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