32 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



seeds are exalbuminous, and here one is concerned only with 

 the coats and the kernel. The last two are albuminous, and 

 we have, therefore, in their cases to distinguish between the 

 albumen and the embryo. 



COMPARISON OF THE WEIGHTS OF THE COATS, KERNEL, AND EMBRYO 

 (IN TWO CASES) IN RESTING LEGUMINOUS SEEDS, AND IN THE SAME 

 SEEDS WHEN DRIED AFTER SWELLING FOR GERMINATION. 



Third, that 

 the embryo 

 in many pre- 

 resting seeds 

 is able to 

 pass on at 

 once to ger- 

 mination. 



Nature often supplies evidence of the readiness of seeds to 

 "jump " the rest-period, the shrinking and swelling processes 

 being then dispensed with. This is what we would expect if 

 the shrinking of the soft pre-resting seed and the swelling of 

 the hardened resting seed are essentially concerned with the 

 loss and absorption of water. But in thus appealing to the 

 potential vivipary of seeds we do so only in a very general 

 sense, since numerous other influences may come into play. 

 Though typically the resting stage represents a complete 

 interruption in the embryo's development, this is not always 

 so. A treatment of this complicated subject will be found 

 in a later chapter ; and it is there shown that in the case of 



