358 KiRKWooD AND GiES : Chemical Studies 



matter from the fluid in the husk — possibly also organic substance 

 from the disintegrating husk fibers — and thus they absorb new 

 nourishment from a large supply. Growth of the plumule is con- 

 sequently favored. The plumule soon reaches such a height and 

 development as to enable it to make increasing contributions to 

 the plant metabolism from the gaseous products the air affords. 

 By this time the whole growth has become practically independent 

 of the reserve material of the seed. 



Enzymes. — We made only a few preliminary studies of enzyme 

 distribution. Extracts were made in water, dilute salt solution 

 and glycerin. The indicators used in nearly all the experiments 

 were prepared from the materials in the nut itself. 



The extracts of the cotyledon were acid to litmus (phosphates), 

 though, as indicated by lacmoid, they contained no free acid. 

 Diastatic ferment was found to be distributed in abundance in all 

 parts of the cotyledon. Oxidase was also present. Only the very 

 slightest proteolytic action was manifested by the cotyledon ex- 

 tracts, even when they were obtained in particularly concentrated 

 form. In some experiments the results were entirely negative, how- 

 ever. Cellulose-dissolving and fat-splitting enzymes were not 

 detected in either the cotyledon or the residual endosperm, al- 

 though we cannot be sure that in our few experiments they have 

 not escaped us.* Germination progresses so slowly that possibly 

 some of the enzymes are present in only very minute quantity at 

 any one time — in such amount, perhaps, as to be undiscoverable 

 by the methods commonly employed for ferment detection. We 

 did not examine the parts of the plumule in this connection. 



At this point, before we were able to come to any very definite 

 conclusions as to the enzymes present and before we could de- 

 termine the distribution of proteids, fats, carbohydrates, etc., in the 

 parts of the plant, we were obliged to discontinue our work. The 

 writer hopes to extend these experiments on the germinated cocoa- 

 nut to a consideration of related problems of nutrition. 



* See our references to enzymes on page 345. Lipase seems to have been found 

 in the germinating cocoanut by Lumia : Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der Thier- 

 Chemie, 28 : 724. 1898. 



