124 TROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



if allowed to remain for some time in a dry place. Some seeds that 

 were left in a cool but dry room began to lose water and to 

 decrease in weight, so that it seems that immediate germination is a 

 means of insuring the perpetuation of the species. 



The period of germination is gone through quite rapidly. The 

 seeds sprout quickly and in about a month's time the plants are a 

 foot high with several well-developed pinnate leaves of a rich, glossy 

 green color (fig. 9). The seeds are about an inch to an inch and 

 a half in diameter with sharp angular edges (figs. 1, 3). They are 

 tetrahedra, with one of their faces, that applied to the rounded 

 interior of the capsule, with a spherical curvature (fig. 3). The 

 seed-coats are woody and about ^ inch thick. The interior of the 

 seed is filled up with the fleshy couferruminate cotyledons, which 

 are of a yellowish-white color in section (fig. 8a). The parenchy- 

 matous cells of the cotyledonary masses are large, with compara- 

 tively thin cell walls. Sections of the cotyledonary tissue treated 

 with glycerine cleai's the material and lozenge-shaped crystalloids 

 are seen imbedded in the protoplasm of the cells (fig. 86). Other 

 sections treated with chloroform and then with iodine show these 

 crystalloids quite clearly by the brownish-yellow hue that they 

 take, the protoplasm staining a bright yellow color. At first it 

 was thought that globoids were present because of the aggregated 

 rounded masses found in the cells that were treated Avith alcohol. 

 The application of chloroform and ether showed these masses to 

 be oily in character. The oil dissolves readily in the chloroform, 

 but tardily in the ether. In some old seeds, here and there, paren- 

 chyma cells were found to be filled with a yellowish resin-like sub- 

 stance, but more careful investigation failed to demonstrate the 

 resinous nature of this substance. Starch is absent as a reserve 

 material from these seeds. The materials, therefore, stored in the 

 cotyledon consist of oil, proteid bodies (crystalloids) and proto- 

 plasm. This determination is substantiated by the fact that from 

 the seeds of Carapa procera, C. guianensis, a commercial oil is 

 obtained, having a slightly unpleasant smell and a bitter taste. 

 This oil is known variously as Carapa oil, Talliconah oil. Crap 

 oil, Carap oil, Andiroba oil, Touloucouna oil, or Coondi oil. The 

 natives of Guiana rub their bodies with it as a protection against 

 mosquitoes. 



Germination begins by the cracking of the testa, or outer seed- 



