74 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



Clautriau (78), who finds another explanation of the dis- 

 appearance of the alkaloids during germination in a possible 

 destruction of them as deleterious bodies which would 

 affect prejudicially the development of the young seedling. 

 He has ascertained with considerable precision the dis- 

 tribution of the alkaloid in the seeds of Atropa Beliadona, 

 Datura Stramonium, and Hyoscyamus Niger, and states 

 that it is confined entirely to a layer of cells situated 

 between the albumen and the integument of the seed, which 

 when the latter is mature is very much reduced in its 

 dimensions. This layer is much more prominent while the 

 seed is ripening, consisting of many cells with very rich 

 contents, the latter consisting of starch and albuminoid sub- 

 stances as well as alkaloids. As the albumen grows, this 

 nourishing layer gradually yields up both starch and pro- 

 teids, while the alkaloid persists ; the cells become 

 gradually nearly empty, and dry up considerably, ultimately 

 becoming dead. In this condition they still contain the 

 alkaloid, the quantity of which does not diminish during the 

 changes described. When the seed is mature, this layer 

 is very thin, the cells being flattened and compressed to- 

 gether, forming a sort of membrane in which the alkaloids 

 remain, partially or wholly combined with an organic acid. 



The nutritive value of the alkaloid seems improbable 

 when we consider the disappearance from this layer of the 

 starch and proteids, and the retention of the former. If it 

 were then a reserve product it would in all probability ac- 

 company the other undoubted nutritive bodies. Clautriau 

 has obtained further information on this point by depriving 

 seeds of Datura Stramonium of this alkaloidal layer and 

 submitting them to germination, either in moist earth or in 

 an atmosphere saturated with watery vapour. He found 

 that under such conditions they germinated normally, and 

 produced young seedlings which differed in no particulars 

 from normal seedlings of Datura. 



Clautriau extended his researches to other plants than 

 those named, particularly Conium maculatum, from which 

 he obtained the same results. 



Examining the young seedlings grown under these 



