ACCOMPANYING THE SECRETION OF DIASTASE 433 
(c) These granules at first spread through the cell but later 
collect at the end of the cell next to the endosperm, where they 
are ultimately dissolved. 
(2) Immediately after their dissolution the first destructive 
action of a ferment in the cell walls and inter-starch matrix of the 
endosperm is to be observed. 
(e) Soon starch grains appear in greater abundance in the 
scutellar cells, 
2. Zymogenesis begins in the nuclei before the advent of the 
resting period. 
3. At some time during the first and third days of germination 
the diastase-secreting cells swell to three or four times their 
original size. 
4. During the first and third days there are “‘ waves ” of secre- 
tion, so that this process may be described as intermittent. From 
that time on, until the final exhaustion of the cells, the secretion 
is more continuous. (It has been shown by Hansteen* that an 
accumulation of diastase unless removed will inhibit the further 
secretion of that substance by the scutellum and it would seem 
that the behavior of the secreting cells as above described is due 
to this fact.) 
5. The secreting cells begin to degenerate about the tenth day. 
6. It is highly probable —_ the chromatin takes an active 
part in the zymogenesis. 
7. The nucleus is in this case very clearly the metabolic center 
of the cell. 
8. There is a marked difference in secretory processes in plants 
and animals. 
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
b LITERATURE 
Brown, H.T., & Escombe, F. On the Depletion of the Endosperm of 
Hordeum vulgare during germination. Proc. Roy. Soc. ee 
1888. 
_ Brown, H. T., & Morris. On the Germination of some of the Gram- 
ineae. Jour, Chem. Soc. Trans. 57: 458. 1890. 
* See Pfeffer’s Physiology of Plants (English translation), p. 580. 
