THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



Vol. XVIII. JULY, 1897. No. 7 



On the Seeds and Testa of Some Cruciferae. 



By L. H. PAMMElv, 



AMES, IOWA. 



WITH FRONTISPIECE, 



[Contributions, No. 6, Botanical Department, Iowa Agricultural College.] 



It has been knowii for a long time that cruciferous 

 seeds, when placed in water, become mucilaginous. Grew, 

 the early anatomist, was acquainted with the mucilagin- 

 ous character of some cruciferous seeds, — Caraelina, Tur- 

 ritis, and Lepidium, as well as the plain tain and Ocimiim 

 bassilicum. In this paper Grew refers to the use of 

 seeds to collect foreign matter in the eye,* 



De Candolle, in an early paper on Brassica, calls atten- 

 tion to the mucilaginous character of the seeds of the 

 genus. The descriptions given by systematists are 

 brief. The microscopic details are not noted. The follow- 

 ing more recent writers have studied cruciferous seeds :- 

 Caspary, Hofmeister, Sempolowski, Abraham, Schroe- 

 der, Henkel, Heraud, Schimper, Moeller, Harz, Hanau- 

 sek, Strandmark, Wiesner, Flueckiger and Hanbury, 

 Flueckiger and Tschirch, Tschirch, Tschirch and Oesterle, 

 Klencke, Hoehuel, Kiaerskou, Strasburger, Sachs, Hager, 

 Nobbe, Vogl, Berg, Oudeman, Garcke, Luerssen, Royle 

 and Headland, Tietschert, Kratzman, Sclienk, Behrens, 

 Frank, J. D'Arbaumont, Van Tiegham, Godfrin, Zim- 



*"Anatoniie des plantes. Qui contient uue description exacte de leurs 

 parties et de leurs usages et qui fait voir comment elles se forment et com- 

 ment elles croissent. French Translation, second edition, Paris, 1679, p. 199. 



