30 



Hydration and Growth. 



lages and gums elude microchemical tests. It has already been pointed 

 out that it is in this condition that they produce the peculiar hydration 

 properties of living matter which are those of an agar-protein gel. 1 



Generally the mucilages originate in minute quantities in numerous 

 places in the protoplasm, but when such structures as starch-grains or 

 layers of wall material are transformed, the gels so formed largely re- 

 mains in place, and as they swell to occupy a much larger space than 



TABLE 11. Hydration of sections containing gums and mucilages. 



that occupied by the bodies from which they were formed, the resultant 

 masses may be so large as to crowd the protoplasm into a small com- 

 pass. 2 Their hydration offers such indeterminate features as to make 



1 Spoehr, H. A. Carbohydrate economy of the cacti. Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 287 



pp. 44-47. 1919. 

 2 Stewart, E. G. Mucilage or slime formation in the cacti. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 46: 175. 



1919. Lloyd, F. E. The origin and nature of the mucilage in the cacti and in certain 



other plants. Amer. Jour, of Bot., 6:156. 1919. 



