34. BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
must undergo before it can be used as plastic material for the 
growth of the cell. There is a possibility that the failure to 
germinate may be due to the proteid reserve material remaining 
in a form which cannot be used. This is, however, not as prob- 
able as the view just advanced for the non-nitrogenous reserve 
food. If the supposition is correct, spores when supplied with 
organic material in the form which the reserve assumes ulti- 
mately in germination might be expected to germinate in com- 
plete darkness. 
As a nutritive solution the following preparation was made: 
To 100% of 0.25 pro mille normal inorganic nutritive solution, 
2 per cent. of grape sugar and I per cent. of peptone was added, 
and the whole sterilized on the water bath for one hour. Cul- 
tures of Funaria spores were made for both light and dark and 
supplied with this nutritive solution, as great precautions as pos- 
sible being taken to keep the cultures sterile. An examination 
of the cultures at the end of three days showed that the spores 
had germinated as well in the dark as in the light. The very 
noticeable feature of this experiment was that under these con- 
ditions the protonemata were four or five times as large as when 
supplied with only inorganic nourishment and grown in the light; _ 
also that the cells were crowded with large, irregular starch — 
masses, as shown by the iodine test (see fig. 2). The question a 
now was: Is this germination in the dark due to the sugar OF — 
the peptone or both? In order to determine this point, the fol- 
lowing experiments were carried out: 
A 2 per cent. grape sugar solution was made from the 0.25 
grape sugar alone to call forth germinations in the dark. A 1 
per cent. peptone solution was then prepared in the 0.25 Pf : 
mille normal nutritive solution, and cultures of Funaria spores 
made for both light and dark. After three days, these cultures 
also showed germination of the spores in both light and dark- 
