THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



Vol. XVIII. JULY, 1897. No. 7 



On the Seeds and Testa of Some Cruciferae. 



By Iv. l\. PAMMEIv, 



AMES, IOWA. 



WITH FRONTISPIECE, 



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



It lias been known for a long time that cruciferous 

 seeds, when placed in water, become niucilaginou.s. (rrew, 

 the early anatomist, was acquainted witli the mucilagin- 

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

 ritis, and Lepidium, as well as the plaintain and Ocimum 

 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 

 •^enus. The descriptions given by systematists are 

 bri(;f. The microscoi)ic details are not noted. The i'ollow- 

 ing more recent writers liavt; studied cruciferous seeds :- 

 Cas[iary, Hofmeister, Sempolowski, i\bruham, Scliroe- 

 der, Henkel, Ileraud, Schimper, Moeller, Harz, Ilanau- 

 sek, Strandmark, Wiesner, Flueckiger and Ilanbury, 

 Flueckiger and Tschirch, Tschirch, Tscliirch and Oesterle, 

 Kleiicke, Hoehnel, Kiaerskou, Strasburger, Sachs, Hager, 

 Nobbe, Vogl, Berg, Oudeman, (iarcke, Luerssen, Royle 

 and Headland, Tietschert, Kratzman, iSchenk, Behrens, 

 Frank, J. D'Arbaumout, Van Tiegham, Grodfrin, Zim- 



*"Anatonne des ])lantes. Qui contient une descriptiou exacte dc leurs 

 ])artics ft du leurs usages et (|ui (ait voir coinnn'iit elles se torment et com- 

 ment elles croissent. French Translation, s«icoud edition, i'aris, 1()79, p. l!)9. 



