362 General Notes. [ June, 
ferment residing in the seed. The grains of Vicia were treated first for 
forty-eight hours with alcohol and afterwards with glycerine. Drops 
of such solutions were placed on starch of which notable quantities were 
changed into sugar, while similar liquids in which seeds had not been 
digested produced no change. It is safe to conclude that the existence 
of a pepsine ferment is established in the vegetable kingdom. Thus 
we have established among plants the digestion of starch, sugar, oils, 
and albuminoids, precisely the four normal kinds of digestion in man 
and animals. But we find still other and often very complicated vege- 
table ferments, such as the myrosine causing the mustard fermentation, 
and pectose of the pectic fermentation. 
The similarity of composition of milk and endosperm, or in other 
words the food of the young animal, and young plant, has long been 
noticed. As an illustration we give the following : — 
WHEAT FLOUR (DRY). ©OW’sS MILK (DRY). 
Stare z 80 Sugar of milk . 7 l 605 
Fatty matters 20 } 206 MR ge, 258 { Pa 
Gluten 3 : < T9 190 Caseine : ; . 242 } 339 
Albumen j à 20 Albumen . Š i 95 
Salt š i ý 10 Salt ý z s i 56 
1000 1000 
Both contain two ternary and two nitrogenous ingredients. During 
germination the endosperm undergoes nearly the same changes as the 
milk in the digestive system of the animal. The digestive power of 
vegetation appears very evident if we consider those plants destitute of 
chlorophyll. Thus the Bactaria and similar plants are representatives of 
fermentation. But the majority of plants have chlorophyll, and their 
activity differs from those without it, by their absorbing carbonic dioxide 
and elaborating their own food. 
To consider only the phenomena which interests us at this moment, 
one recognizes three very distinct and consecutive functions, namely, 
elaboration, digestion, and assimilation. 
Elaboration has for its part the production of carbohydrates out of — 
carbon dioxide and water. It is characteristic of chlorophyll, and takes 
place in sunlight, the type of its products being starch (CgH,)05)- 
Digestion takes place in protoplasm in the presence of oxygen with a 
_ production of carbonic dioxide. It consists in a hydration not accompa- 
nied by a molecular change, by which the elaborated matter is dissolved 
and diffused, starch passing into glucose (C,H,,O,). 
Assimilation is the fixing of these digested materials into the texture 
of the plant, the glucose passes into permanent cellulose (C,H9;)- 
All these processes may be confined to a single cell, as in many 
cellular plants, while in the higher forms the labor is much divided. 
Protoplasm includes the sum total of vegetable activity. The cells re- 
‘main active during a definite time, that is to say, while their protoplasm 
continues to live in the shelter of the protecting membrane which it it- 
uni- 
