116 Brand in the Cereals. [Sept., 



two pistils which remain standing, of the seed affected with hrand, 

 are usually covered and joined together, by delicate white threads 

 interwoven like mould in a sort of netwoik (Plate I, Fig. 4, c). 

 This mould formation belongs essentially to the wheat brand, and 

 forms as it were a part of the root texture of the fungus constitut- 

 ing the brand. It always exists, only frequently more or less de- 

 veloped, and therefore more or less easily found. It wholly covers 

 the head of the seed, and lies between the chaff-hairs (Fig. 16, h), 

 while the sound seed exhibits not a trace of such an interwoven 

 fibrous formation among the chaff-hairs on its head. The same is 

 also the case in respect to the pistils of the sound seed (Fig. 

 16, i). With the development of this outer fibrous mould begins 

 likewise the transformation of the seed, as well in respect to its 

 external form as to its internal .structure. 



If the transformation which the seed of wheat undergoes by the 

 formation of brand, be examined, we find that the particles have 

 undergone either an entire or partial transformation in respect to 

 internal structure, and without here entering on the technological 

 signification of the several parts of the seed, I shall describe the 

 same, in a way generally intelligible, and simply, as should al- 

 ways be done, and so pass over the head as well as the pistil, since 

 they suffer no visible change by the formation of the brand. The 

 same is true of the glumes and petals, the anthers and the spike 

 of the ears themselves. 



The fruit or seed of the wheat viewed on the outside, consists of 

 an elongated irregularly egg-shaped body (Fig. 16, f), having on 

 the front surface a streak or furrow lengthwise, (Fig. 16, k), 

 which bears on the point the pistil (Fig. 16, i), and the head 

 (Fig. 16, h). 



At the bottom we see on the back, the little shield (Fig. 15), 

 containing the germ, and the front side the little opening [Feus- 

 ie.rchen^{y\g. 16, g). If the seed is cut across through the 

 middle (Fig- 18), we find that it has an outer skin (Fig. 18, 1), 

 which by bending inward forms the furrow lengthwise (k). In- 

 side of this skin are found white hard transpartnit bodies contain- 

 ing starch-meal which natural historians call the albuminous bo- 

 dies, "the albumen" of the seed (Fig. 18, m). If now we cut 

 off as thin as possible, a slice perfectly transparent in the direc- 

 tion already mentioned, and examine the same microscopically, 

 we find that, 



1. The skin of the seed (Fig. 18, 1), consists of three layers, 

 to wit: 



a. The outer layer, (Fig. 19, n); 



b. The middle layer, (Fig 19, o); and 



c. The inner layer, (Fig- 19, p), on which layer immediately 

 lies a '"^rge soft cellular strata, which contains the grains of gluten 



