154 



STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



statement of a seed's water-contents as easy as it was difficult. 

 All my results on the varying water-percentages of seeds, and 

 on the capacity of regaining from the air the water lost in the 

 oven, arrange themselves in an intelligible system in the light 

 of the principle below typified in the behaviour of the full- 

 grown, moist pre-resting seeds of Phaseolus multiflorus. The 

 hydratation of these seeds in this condition of active vitality 

 may be thus stated : — 



Water of vitality . 

 Water of hygroscopicity 

 Solids . . . . 



64-8 



5-2 



30-0 



lOO-O 



The Principle of Berthelot illustrated by the Behaviour of 

 THE Full-grown Unripe or Pre-resting Seeds of Phaseolus 

 multiflorus. (Three seeds weighing 140 grains were experi- 

 mented on by the author ; the results are given as percentages.) 



Important as the principle of Berthelot is in the differen- 

 tiation of the water-contents of plant-tissues generally, its 

 application is still more interesting in its results in the case of 

 the hydratation of seeds. It not only enables us to recognise 

 in clear outlines the nature of the contrast between permeable 

 and impermeable seeds ; but this implication supplies quite a 

 novel way of viewing the problem of the latent life of seeds. 

 If the implication is valid, its influence on our views should be 

 revolutionary. 



