GERMINATION OF THE GRAIN 33 



the tissue had disappeared and the masses of starch grains in each cell 

 clung together, preserving the form of the cell-cavity. 



The endosperm was very brittle and strongly acid, the acidity being 

 apparently due to decomposition of the proteins of the grain, for these 

 were completely altered and no longer gave rise to gluten when water was 

 added to the finely broken grain. 



The embryo had become dark brown, its plumule greatly shrivelled, 

 and little of its structure was visible, although the scutellum with its 

 epithelial cells could be recognised in some of the grains. 



In grains from spikelets of Emmer from a tomb of the eighteenth 

 dynasty (1400 B.C., see p. 187) the structure of the pericarp, aleuron 

 layer and its contents, and the endosperm tissue with its starch grains 

 were clearly recognisable, although all the parts were more brittle and the 

 embryo more completely disorganised than in the grains from Hawara. 

 It is scarcely necessary to observe that the embryos were dead. 



Professor Petrie tested samples of grain of Graeco-Roman age which 

 he found at Hawara immediately after exhumation. The grains were 

 sown on the banks of a canal in soil of varying degrees of moisture from 

 mud to fairly dry earth, but none germinated. 



From time to time, however, during the last century, reports have \J 

 been given of the germination of grains taken from Egyptian tombs, but 

 the evidence when tested is invariably unsatisfactory. 



In some cases it is clear that modern grain has been inadvertently , 

 admitted to mummy cases, the wrappings of mummies, and vessels taken 

 from tombs. Sometimes imperfectly thrashed straw and even chaff with 

 grain have been used as packing for mummies, and mummy cases and 

 tombs have been used in modern times as convenient stores for grain. 



Modern wheat grains appropriately stained have sometimes been 

 fraudulently mixed with wheat taken from ancient vases, the whole being V 

 sold to the credulous tourist as " mummy wheat," or introduced into 

 mummy cases, or placed within the wrappings of mummies. 



Genuine vases apparently unopened but containing such grain are 

 also occasionally sold to travellers. 



In regard to recent samples of wheat grains, the duration of their 

 vitality is dependent chiefly upon (i) the degree of ripeness and the water- \/ 

 content of the grain at harvest, and (2) the temperature and moisture of the 

 place of storage. 



Poorly developed grain, and grain with a high percentage of water in 

 it, loses its capacity for germination in a year or two, while well-ripened 

 dry samples retain their vitality for several years. 



Storage in a warm room, especially if the atmosphere is damp, leads 

 to rapid death of the embryo. 



Many tests have been made with grains of wheat whose age is beyond 



D 



