existence of mitochondria in plant cells was first described by Meves (1904) who observed them in the pollen nurse cells of the Nymphaeceae. The presence of mitochondria in plant cells was subsequently confirmed by a number of investigators. The life history of mitochondria remained obscure however because of the cytologists’ inability to distinguish between these bodies and the cytoplasmic particles of similar size which are destined to develop into the various types of plastids characteristic of the plant cell. Sorokin first (1938, 1941) achieved such a differentiation when she found that it is possible to differentiate mitochondria from morphologically similar forms of plastids by vital staining of the mitochondria with the dye Janus green B.