98 HOW CROPS GROW. 



ration from alkali-solutions, is undissolved by brine. The 

 conglutin obtained from lupins and pea-nuts diiiers some- 

 what from that found in the hazel-nut, and in almond 

 and peach seeds. Conglutin cannot be crystallized from 

 salt-solutions, as readily happens with vegetable vitellin. 



Vegetable Vitellin. — ^Applying this designation to al- 

 buminoids which are insoluble in water, but dissolve in 

 saturated salt-solutions, and are thence precipitated by 

 water, we find vitellin more or less abundantly in seeds 

 of squash, hemp, sunflower, lupin, bean, pea. Brazil-nut, 

 castor-bean, and various other plants. It may be extracted 

 from squash seeds by common-salt-solution (of 10 per 

 cent) or dilute alkali. Diluting the brine with water or 

 neutralizing the alkali with acids precipitates the vitellin, 

 which, after washing with water, alcohol and ether, may 

 be obtained in crystals (microscopic octahedrons) by dis- 

 solving in warm brine and slowly cooling. • Prom seeds 

 of hemp and castor-bean Eitthausen obtained crystals 

 identical in appearance and composition with those of 

 squash seeds, but soluble in water, probably because of 

 the presence of alkali salts. 



Vegetable Myosin. — Weyl and Bischof consider that 

 cereal and leguminous seeds contain or yield myosin anal- 

 ogous to muscle-myosin, which differs from vitellin (and 

 conglutin) in being precipitated from its solution in weak 

 brine by saturating the same with salt. They find that 

 wheat-flour contains but little if any proteid besides 

 myosin, and that when this is removed from the flour by 

 salt-solution or by very weak soda-lye or by hydrochloric 

 acid of 0.1%, the residue is incapable of yielding gluten. 

 Gluten is therefore a decomposition-product of myosin. 

 These results are confirmed by the recent work of Mar- 

 tin {Jour, of Physiology, 1887). Zoeller found that the 

 pulp of potatoes, after starch and soluble matters had 

 been removed by copious washings with water, yielded to 

 10% salt-solution an albuminoid which separated when the 



