THE HISTORY OF THE INVESTIGATION 5 



at Moneague in the interior of Jamaica. In March 1907 

 I there studied the maturation of the seed on the living plant 

 and collected material which not only gave me employment 

 at the time, but has occupied me at various intervals ever 

 since. The results then obtained gave support to the theory 

 of shrinkage above noted, and when I returned to England in 

 May I adopted the water-of-inclusion theory, 



I then set to work to procure the germination of seeds of 

 Entaddy Mucuna, Canavalia^ Abrus, etc., which had assumed 

 the typical resting state after being gathered in the moist, soft 

 condition, with their funicles beginning to shrivel ; and the 

 results confirmed the view suggested by the earlier observa- 

 tions that the resting seed in preparing for germination takes 

 up the water lost in the previous shrinking stage. In other 

 words, the swollen seed on the eve of germination resumed 

 its condition of before the rest-period. The work was then 

 continued on these lines, guided more by opportunities than 

 by method. It was then argued that if the water absorbed for 

 germination is the water previously lost in the drying process, 

 it does not necessarily involve germination, meaning thereby 

 the commencing growth of the embryo. It was held that if 

 the above view was correct a swollen seed dried when on the 

 eve of germination ought to return to its original resting 

 weight and ought to retain its germinative powers. Both Therecipro- 

 these inferences were established by the results of several germination, 

 experiments discussed in the next chapter ; and I finally 

 adopted " the reciprocal theory," as it was termed, which is to 

 the effect that the water taken up for germination is the water 

 lost in the previous shrinkage process. 



The theory of germination thus held good ; but it was 

 very different when one came to confirm by experiment the 

 water-of-inclusion view, which was really a theory concerned 

 with the embryo's life in the resting seed. It is there 

 suggested, as already pointed out, that some of the water The water of 

 which the shrivelled seed has lost through being prematurely seed.^^ '" 

 detached is retained in the normally contracted resting seed 



