THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[January, 



of the figure. The same drops of oil 

 (fig. 6 b) are plentiful in the water 

 surrounding the section, and the water 

 is very pungent to the taste. 



In a portion of the pod that has 

 been macerated one night in nitric 

 acid, the pulp-cells (fig. \2 b) are 

 more swollen than those acted on by 

 potash; the color is nearly all ex- 

 tracted, and the cells of the outer 

 surface now show the separate layers 

 of the cell-wall, the central, thick- 

 ened layer being very distinct, and 

 the thin, slightly wrinkled, inner layer, 

 or primordial utricle, less distinct but 

 plainly visible (fig. ii). A section 

 of the outer skin of the pod, now 

 easily separated from the pulp, shows 

 the thickened framework of the cells 

 cut across, and having a clear glassy 

 appearance and a light-yellow color, 

 in section, while the surface appears 

 finely punctate (fig. 14). No cell- 

 contents are present and no trace of 

 the outer cell-wall forming the sur- 

 face of the pod can be seen in the 

 section, although it is readily seen 

 in surface-view. A great number of 

 sections were made and examined in 

 the effort to discern the reason of 

 this disappearance, but without suc- 

 cess. The inner surface of the pod, 

 after maceration in acid, presents an 

 exceedingly beautiful appearance; 

 being somewhat swollen, the crook- 

 edness of the cell-walls is thereby 

 lessened, the secondary layer is very 

 distinct, and the primordial utricle 

 is festooned in loops and has exactly 

 the appearance of being tied back at 

 close intervals to the thick cell-wall, 

 while the cell-contents are shrunken 

 to a small globule in the centre of the 

 enlarged cell (fig. 15). Under the 

 microscope the inner layer of ridges, 

 when untreated, appears of a clear, 

 horn-like consistence, and to the fin- 

 gers the pod seems tough and leathery, 

 with a slight oily feel, and one in- 

 stinctively wonders how it is practi- 

 cable to grind it to a fine powder. 



Passing now to the examination of 

 the seed, which constitutes the great- 

 er bulk of this variety of capsicum- 



fruit, we find the seed covered with 

 shallow pits of sinuous shape, separa- 

 ted by sharp-edged serpentine ridges 

 shown in outline in fig. 17. When 

 softened by maceration in potash, the 

 seed appears to the eye as in fig. 2 b, 

 and if macerated in nitric acid is still 

 softer and more transparent, appear- 

 ing as in fig. 2 c, in which the coiled 

 radicle is visible to the eye by trans- 

 mitted light. A transverse section 

 across the seed, about its middle, ex- 

 amined in water by a one-inch objec- 

 tive appears like fig. 16. The hard 

 seed-coat is of considerable thick- 

 ness with the outer surface serrated 

 and separated from the cotyledon by 

 a thin membrane. The cells of the 

 cotyledon are small, angular, and fill- 

 ed with granular matter; the trans- 

 verse sections of the radicle are 

 darker-colored, because composed of 

 smaller cells with cell-contents more 

 green. On squeezing out of one of 

 the cut seeds the enclsoed cotyledon 

 and crushing it on a slip in water, it 

 is found to be enclosed in a thin, 

 square-celled, hyaline membrane (fig. 

 19). The crushing of the seed sets 

 free a cloud of minute, white, spher- 

 ical starch-granules, which render 

 the water cloudy, and are barely visi- 

 ble with an inch objective; by the 

 quarter-inch objective they are seen 

 distinctly, but not so as to reveal any 

 hilum. These starch -grains are shown 

 in the upper part of fig. 20, as they ap- 

 pear by half and by quarter-inch ob- 

 jectives, and three of the granules as 

 seen by a one-tenth-inch homogenous- 

 immersion lens, are shown at the 

 right of fig. 20. 



The outer seed-coat of a macerated 

 seed, viewed from the outside, shows 

 the outlines of the cells to corre- 

 spond with the pits of the surface, as 

 in fig. 17, in which the lines repre- 

 sent the sharp edges of the ridges 

 separating the pits, which are very 

 much deeper than in the dry seed. 

 A section of the macerated seed-coat 

 is shown in fig. 18. The membrane 

 lining the shell of the seed, which is 

 hyaline in its natural state, becomes 



