4 io STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



determined for any ordinary seed by making use of the data 

 given in the last column of the table. Thus, in the instance of 

 Canna indica, the embryo is given as -^ of the weight of the 

 kernel ; but by employing the data given for the entire seed 

 we obtain a proportional weight of ^-g. Then, again, if further 

 particulars relating to the palm-embryos are needed, the weight 

 of the kernel can be readily calculated from the results given 

 in these columns, and by referring to Chapter XIV the weight 

 of the entire fruit can in most cases be found. For instance, 

 in the case of ripe coco-nuts, where the kernel makes up 

 about one-fourth of the weight of the fruit, the total weight 

 for the fruit illustrated in the table would be about 17,500 

 grains, and the relative weight of the embryo would be there- 

 fore about -g^Vo' Coco-nuts vary so much in weight both in 

 their several stages and in their different varieties that the 

 same result can be scarcely looked for. So again with the dry 

 fruit of Licuala grandis^ since the embryo weighing -^ grain is 

 equal to -5-^ of the weight of the kernel, we obtain 6*2 grains 

 as the kernel's weight. In a table in Chapter XIV the average 

 weight of the entire fruit is stated to be 10 grains, from which 

 the relative weight of the embryo may be placed at -g-^ of the 

 fruit's weight. 



Another important point is that we are here dealing with 

 the embryos of resting seeds. In most cases this is a seed 

 that has dried, spontaneously on the plant ; but with palms 

 several other considerations arise, and it is often more than 

 probable that a palm seed which has completed the normal 

 drying process has lost its capacity for reproducing the plant. 

 In some palm seeds it is likely, as in the case of that of the 

 coco-nut, that during the ripening of the kernel the oil increases 

 as the water diminishes. 



The embryos With nearly all the palm seeds experimented upon the 

 embryos belonged to dry fruits and were more or less 

 shrunken. In a few instances, as with Cocos nucifera, Mauritia 

 setigera, and Areca Catechu^ the fruits were ripe and still moist, 

 the kernel reaching maturity after the husk had commenced to 



