10 GKACE E. roOLKY ON 



ent vsugars, sick' by side. Probably in all, the ground substance is the same, but it 

 is difficult to suppose that the blue color of ScUIa Kibirica in the presence of iodine 

 is produced by exactly the same substance which in other seeds is colorless or 

 brown. 



Iodine and Sidplmrlc Acid. If we ti-eat the endosperm cells of Po!i/rjo7iatnm 

 multifloriim with iodine, and then with sulphuric acid (one part water, with two 

 parts sulphuric acid), the usual cellulose reaction is confined to the primary mem- 

 brane and the reserve material is turned deep violet-blue, quite different from that 

 of cellulose, while it swells and dissolves slowly. Tulipa shows no sign of blue color- 

 ing with iodine and sulphuric acid, having instead a red-brown color, and it does 

 not dissolve after half an hour. Asparagus does not give the violet-blue witli this 

 treatment that Polygonatuni does. AUhmi cqxi, Iris pseudacorus, and others show the 

 same reaction as Polygonatnm with iodine and sulphuric acid. 



Chloroiodide of Zinc. Chloroiodide of zinc acts upon the reserve cellulose in 

 the same way as iodine in solutions of potassium iodide does. All the seeds studied 

 show a brown color in the reserve of the endosperm walls except Paris and Colchi- 

 cum, which react the same as with iodine. In the crest cells of the seed of Colchicum, 

 which before the ripening of the seed are filled with starch, the cellulose reaction 

 with chloroiodide of zinc takes place, and the blue color appears. 



Cuprammonia. With this reagent the reserve cellulose is entirely dissolved from 

 the endosperm of all the seeds examined, with the exception of Paris (pmdrifolia} 

 In Polygonatnm, the reserve cellulose was dissolved in ten minutes. Iris pseudacorus 

 had the walls dissolved in twenty minutes. Tulipa, Scilla, Colchicum, Ornithogalum, 

 Allium, and Narcissus range between these two in the time required to complete the 

 solution of the walls of the endosperm. 



Anilin 8idphate and Phlorofjlucin loith Ilijdrochloric Acid. These reagents do 

 not affect reserve cellulose. 



Phloroglucin and hot ffi/drochlori.c Acid." On the possibility of finding that 

 reserve cellulose would give the rose-red reaction of tlie pentaglucoses, when treated 

 with these reagents, sections of Polygonatuni, etc., were treated with an alcoholic 

 solution of phloroglucin until they Avere impregnated with it, a little water was 

 added and the sections wex-e then heated in hydrochloric acid, but in no case did the 

 endosperm yield the rose color. 



Action of Boiling Water. When sections of Polygonatuni seeds are boiled in 

 water for 6-9 hours, the structure of the cell wall is apparently unaltered. This is 



' Relss, Landw. jahrbiiclier, 18, .s. 711. - Scliulze, Ber. der deut. cbem. gesellschaft, 24, s. 2279. 



