66 



THE VITAMINES 



reserve vitamine, were removed after germination without harm to 

 the plant. The results were very significant and showed that the 

 young plants, in a stage in which they could not live by their own 

 process of metabolism, are dependent upon the stock of vitamine 

 which is stored up in the seeds. In mature plants, the vitamines 

 are built up through symbiosis with bacteria, which prepare it 

 synthetically from the organic constituents of the soil and from 

 8 



A 



B 



O 10 ZO JO 40 50 



Time in days 

 FIG. 4. PLANT GROWTH 

 A, with vitamine addition; B, without vitamine addition (Bottomley) 



fertilizers, and carry it to the plants through the roots. In the 

 investigations of Bottomley, the control plants (in the nutritive 

 solution above) underwent a decrease in weight of 10.9 per cent in 50 

 days, while with the addition of vitamine there was an increase in 

 weight of 59 per cent. The curves appended illustrate what has just 

 been stated. We see here the influence of the silver nitrate fraction 



