1 6 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



This brings to an end my record of work and travel. 

 During the preparation of this book many other " lacunae," as 

 well as new lines of inquiry, have presented themselves. The 

 first I have been compelled to largely ignore, whilst the new 

 openings for investigation have been promptly blocked up. 

 But little has been said of my study of the rest-period of seeds 

 in this account of my work. As a matter of fact, however, it 

 has formed the pivot of my inquiries from the beginning to 

 the end. It started me on my work, and it is towards the 

 clearing up of the problem concerned in its mystery that many 

 lines of my inquiries now converge. 



The work- Looking back at all the data collected in this investigation, 



ing-up of my j am puzzled to account for their bulk. So often on returning 



materials. r 



home from my excursions it seemed that I had only made one 

 or two observations worth recording during the day. Yet 

 much of the work has been done by the seeds and fruits them- 

 selves, whilst I have stood by to register results. Whilst I 

 was engaged in weighing, or in some experiment, a score of 

 seeds and fruits were silently at work around me. Amongst 

 my seeds I have led a busy life, but no one has been so busy 

 as the seed itself. The labour came when all the results had 

 to be sifted, tabulated, and digested. The arrangement of the 

 materials indeed occupied a good deal of serious thought and 

 extended over a considerable time. It proved very difficult to 

 avoid two dangers : the first that of going over old ground ; the 

 second the assuming in an argument in an early part of the 

 work what could only be demonstrated in a later page. Ac- 

 cordingly I finally hit upon the method of first dealing with 

 the shrinking and swelling of seeds until the question of the 

 permeability or impermeability of their coats blocked the way 

 and demanded a response. This enabled me to open up the 

 whole matter of these qualities in seeds, and to establish a 

 nexus in the general arrangement of the work. 



A serious And now for a serious word in concluding this chapter. 



wor -The plan of sending forth treatises without a trace of the 



personality of the worker is to me repellent. Knowledge in 



