A contribution to the pharmacognosy of official strophanthus seed : read before the British Pharmaceutical Conference in London, July 1900 / by Pierre Élie Félix Perrédès.

Perrédès, Pierre Élie Félix.

Date:: [1900]

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: A contribution to the pharmacognosy of official strophanthus seed : read before the British Pharmaceutical Conference in London, July 1900 / by Pierre Élie Félix Perrédès. Source: Wellcome Collection.

15/48 page 13

$tial (Fig. 8a®), and in radial-longitudinal sections they present exactly the same features. In no case have I been able to detect unequivocal examples of intercellular spaces. The innermost portion of the albumen consists of several layers of much com- pressed and somewhat mucilaginous cells, very similar to those forming the internal limit of the integuments. What has just been said seems, at first sight, perfectly simple and straightfor- ward, but, as a matter of fact, these albumen cells have given rise to a refreshing variety of opinion among different workers ; for instance. Dr. Hanausek described them as polygonal, exceedingly delicate-walled and closely fitted together,” while, according to Dr. Nevinny, they are isodiametric or somewhat tangentially elongated, and possess colourless, shining collenchymatous walls ” (Fig. 38). Dr. Blondel, on the other hand, succeeded in finding no less than three different kinds of cells in three corresponding varieties of Kombe seeds ; in the first variety these were stated to be rounded with extremely thin walls ” (Fig. 39), in the second, “ rounded Avith tolerably thin walls ” (Fig. 40), and in the third, rounded and moderately {mediocrement) thick ” (Fig. 41). Professor Hartwich, in his first paper, found them to be fairly large and thin-walled,” while in his second one, the cell-walls of the embryo, in Strophanthus seeds generally, were stated to be thin when compared Avith those of the endosperm ” (see Fig^42). Dr. Fraser published no description of the structure of the seeds, but he gave figures in Avhich the Avails of the albumen cells were depicted uniformly thin in some cases (t/in.. Fig. 48), in others uniformly thick {thk.^ Fig. 43), in others still, irregularly thickened (frr.. Fig. 43). Finally, Professor S. E. Jeliffe figures them as “ polyhedronal ” and fairly thin-Avalled (about as in Fig. 33), and also mentions the fact that tAvo of Blondel’s three types were observed by him. Now, it is possible to get a good deal of varia- tion in the same section according to the conditions of observation. An account of various observations made under different conditions, and Avith different reagents, Avill accordingly be given. In a moderately thin section, cleared with chloral-hydrate, the cell-Avalls appear thin, as has already been stated, but in a some- what thicker section some of the walls appear thick, especially if the contents have not been thoroughly cleared ; if a section which has been thus treated be deeply stained with hmmatoxylin, Ave get a suggestion as to the reason for this thick-walled appearance (see Figs. 35, 36, 37). It is here seen that the Avails are more or less Avavy (jjs.-t., Figs. 37), or slanted, and by careful focussing the ❖ ^$