34 STRONG DRINK AND TOBACCO SMOKE. 



position relatively to the embryo is considered, there 

 can be little doubt that it fulfils the office of drawing 

 water to the seed; and l)y the capillary attraction 

 which its numerous delicate filaments offer to that 

 medium, conveys it upwards to bathe the parts imme- 

 diately surrounding the embryo. 



It is well known that barley-seed communicates 

 a strono; ting-e of its own colour to water in which it 

 is steeped. The tuft lies immediately on the inner coat 

 of the seed, and this coat consists of four layers of 

 cells charged with coloured matter. By dissolving this, 

 some peculiar action takes place on the starch of the 

 albumen, by which the first phenomena of life are 

 elicited and maintained. Barley - growers, brewers, 

 maltsters, and distillers, having a special interest in 

 the careful threshing of the grain, would do well, before 

 purchasing samples for use, to examine the percentage 

 of damaged corns it contains by means of a simple lens 

 and a pair of needles. 



The uses of the " needle " are not so apparent. It is 

 very hard, highly silieated, and clothed with shorter and 

 less elastic hairs than those on the tuft (Plate 5, fig. 4). 



The seed-coats of barley ofier some curious points for 

 observation (Plate 6, fig. 13). The outer layers of 

 elongated or fibrous tissue are covered externally with 

 plates of silica, between which minute holes make their 

 appearance, these being probably the points to which the 

 bases of hairs were once attached To these cells succeed 

 four or five rows of broad, tabular cells, which form the 



