454 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap., 



top of the fruit. As shown in the figures, the fruit grows in length 

 throughout the process. 



The question as to whether the matured seed passes through a 

 stage of quiescence before it germinates finds its answer in the 

 statement that only nine weeks elapse between fertilisation and 

 germination. It may, however, be urged that the maturation of 

 the seed could be accomplished in a few weeks, and that after this 

 a period of dormant vitality might follow. This objection can be at 

 once disposed of and the whole matter placed beyond reasonable 

 doubt by making, as I did, a large number of vertical sections of 

 the fruit in all its stages. It will then be perceived that there is a 

 fairly constant relation in all stages of growth between the seed and 

 the fruit, whether maturating or germinating. Since the growth of 

 the fruit is continuous (see Table) up to the time of the protrusion 

 of the tip of the hypocotyl through its coats, it follows that there 

 can be no appreciable pause between the completion of maturation 

 and the commencement of germination of the seed. In other words, 

 both fruit and seed preserve the same relation during the process, 

 and the absence of any period of rest is to be inferred from the un- 

 interrupted growth of the fruit. 



We will take, to illustrate this point, a fruit between four and 

 five lines long in the stage that immediately precedes germination 

 (see figure 1 1), The fruit proceeds with its growth, and the seed, we 

 will suppose, remains quiescent for a month. At the end of that 

 time (see Table) the fruit would be eight lines long, and the seed, of 

 course, would be unchanged. This condition of things never pre- 

 sented itself to me. Fruits eight lines long were always far 

 advanced in germination (see figure 15). If the seed passes through 

 an interval of rest before germination, it must be of a very short 

 duration and practically nil. 



This absence of any period of rest between the final maturation 

 of the seed and its fertilisation had already been assumed by Prof 

 Schimper. Writing to me on July 14, 1898, when my observations 

 were in progress, he says : — " I am ready to assume, according to my 

 own experience, that there is continuous development until the fall- 

 ing off of the embryo. More accurate observations on the subject 

 would be interesting, and would not present any great difficulties." 

 At the end of the same month he wrote the preface to his great 

 work on Plant-Geography ; and he expresses himself decidedly on 

 this point. Speaking of Rhizophora mucronata (English edition, 

 p. 396), he says that " the fruit. . . . soon after the completion of 

 its growth is pierced at its summit by the green hypocotyl, as the 



