171 



endosperm or in the cotylédons of the embryo. Thèse reserve 

 materials, turned into assimilable compounds, then serve 

 for the flrst nutrition of the newly formed parts. 



He then arrives at the conclusion that in the vicinity 

 of the ovary saccharose is stored up, and that this reserve 

 substance after fertilisation and in the same proportion 

 as the fruit develops, passes partly or entirely into the 

 tissue of the fruit and into the seed, after having first 

 been changed, under the influence of a soluble ferment, 

 into assimilable compounds. 



Investigation showed me also that the accumulation of 

 saccharose as a reserve substance in the flower is a very 

 common phenomenon. ') 



But besides the function, discovered by Bon nier and 

 the significance of the secreted nectar tor the fertilisation, 

 it has become clear to me that as well the glucose, formed 

 from saccharose, as the outwardly secreted nectar, are 

 also in other respects of great importance to the plant. 

 The observations, hère communicated, point already to 

 one very important function, i. e. to enable the stamens 

 to bring their pollen to the surface at the right time, inde- 

 pendent of the hygroscopic condition of the air. 



I hope before long to be able to point out still another 

 function. 



The sécrétion of nectar now appears in another light. 

 The View that it must be considered as an excrétion of 

 „a waste product of chemical changes in the sap" ^), which 



1) On this point seealso: Paul Knuth, Ueber den Nachweis von 

 Nektarien auf chemischem Wege. Bot. Centralbl. LXXVI. Bd. 1898, 

 p. 76 and Rob. Stâger, chemischer Nachweis von Nektarien bei 

 Pollcnblumen und Anemophilen. Beihefte zum Bot. Centralbl. Band 

 XII. 1901. p.34. 



2) Ch. Darwin. Origin of species. Sixth Edition. 1872. Chap. 

 IV, p. 73 and The effects of Cross and Selffertilisation. Edition 1876, 

 Chap. X, p. 402. 



