SEED-COLORATIOxN 3 8 1 



mencing to rot, but the general conditions under which the 

 seeds underwent these changes must have been those of 

 extreme moistneiss. Without intending it, I had induced 

 these seeds to colour, harden, and probably shrink a little as 

 well, under conditions as moist as that of a berry. The 

 bearing of the results of this experiment has been dealt 

 with elsewhere. Here we will merely accept their indi- 

 cation that the black mottling and induration of the coats 

 of the seeds of Phaseolus multiflorus have but little to do 

 with the drying of the pod with which they are so generally 

 associated. 



The results for the seeds of the four leguminous genera The black 

 of plants above discussed are below tabulated. Though it is fe^uminous 

 not easy at first sight to pick up the thread of the tangled data, ^^^^^^°^ 

 one inference seems to shape itself out of all the observations by the drying 

 and experiments, namely, that the black mottling and dark ' 



coloration of the seeds is not determined by the drying of the 

 pod. From its close association with these processes in the 

 seed-coverings, the drying of the pod has certainly all the 

 appearance of having much to do with them. But we have 

 seen that in berries, as well as in many capsules, seed-coloration 

 can have little to do with the drying of the fruit. 



This inference, though here drawn with regard to the black but may 

 coloration of leguminous seeds, applies also to the brown conditions as 

 coloration of seeds of this and other families, as will be brought Jhos^e of the 

 out below, and probably to seed-coloration in general. In the berry, 

 berry and closed capsule, the soft pre-resting seed colours, 

 hardens, and shrinks under conditions exceptionally moist. 

 But the same capacity of colouring and hardening their coats 

 under moist conditions is exhibited by the seeds of legumes, 

 though in nature disguised by its association with the drying 

 of the pod. We cannot also doubt that the early shrinking 

 which accompanies the coloration and the hardening of 

 leguminous seeds is at the same time an independent process, 

 and is similarly not connected with the drying up of the 

 fruit-case. 



