400 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



ripens, though the embryo is not yet recognisable and the 

 albumen is a mere mass of jelly. I should imagine also with 

 Scilla nutans that seed-coloration precedes the formation of the 

 embryo, the pearl-white immature seeds being merely sacs of 

 fluid. Reference has already been made in the early part of 

 this chapter to the red hue of the seed of Barringtonia speciosa 

 when its contents are quite fluid. 



SUMMARY 



(1) The inquiry is mainly directed to the conditions of seed- 

 coloration, to the How rather than to the Why (p. 368). 



(2) Questions relating to the specially adaptive nature of the colours 

 of seeds are summarily dismissed on the ground that we are not 

 justified in selecting one character that happens to be conspicuous to 

 our senses, whilst ignoring the great number of other characters that 

 can make no such appeal to us (p. 368). 



(3) After referring to the wealth of seed-colour displayed in a 

 typical native garden in Jamaica, the author cites cases of the develop- 

 ment and disappearance of seed-colours before the fruit is ripe or before 

 the seeds are exposed to view (p. 369). 



(4) After it has been shown that as a general rule seeds colour in 

 the closed fruit, as illustrated in the case of berries, capsules, and 

 legumes, inquiry is made as to the stage in the history of the fruit in 

 which the coloration takes place, whether in the green, the ripe, or 

 the drying stage, or in all three of them. Though it is established 

 that coloration frequently takes place in the moist green and ripe 

 capsule, the subject is acknowledged to be a very difficult one, 

 especially as concerns the legume (p. 370). 



(5) In this connection reference is made first to the experiment 

 of Lubimenko, in which the seeds of young leguminous pods were 

 exposed to the outer air by removing portions of the pods, and to the 

 conclusion drawn that for the normal development of the seed a con- 

 fined atmosphere of stable composition is needed (p. 373). 



(6) The author then gives the results of his similar experiments in 

 the case of green capsules of Scilla nutans on the plant, the upshot being 

 that immature seeds exposed to the outer air by windows cut in the 

 fruit-walls developed normally, with the exception of their failure to 

 acquire the black colour of the resting seed. It thus became evident 

 that the seeds acquire their shining black hue only in the confined 

 atmosphere of the moist green capsule (p. 374). 



