MAHITAL OF CATTLE^FEEBINO. 35 



during germination, these ferments act on the albuminoids 

 of the seeds, concerting them into peptones and so facilitat- 

 ing their translocation into the } onng plant. How exten- 

 sively or m what amount peptones are to be found in plants, 

 we have no certain knowledge. 



Alkaloids. — The term alkaloid (alkali-like) is applied 

 to a class of organic bodies possessing more or less marked 

 alkaline characters, a bitter taste, and poisonous or nar- 

 cotic qualities. Morphine, strychnine, and nicotine, are 

 common examples. These bodies, though quite widely 

 distributed in the vegetable kingdom, occur in few of 

 our ordinary fodder plants, the principal one being the 

 lupine. Siewert {Jahresber. f. Agr. C/bem., 13-15, II. 6) 

 found in the seeds of the yellow hipine 0.6 per cent, of 

 alkaloids, and in those of the blue lupine 0.63 per cent., 

 and II. SchuJze {Landw. Jahrbmhey\ VIII., 37) obtained 

 only 0.39 per cent. 



AmineSj Amides, and Amldo-acids. — By these names 

 the chemist nndorstands certain nitrogenous organic sub- 

 stances, having a more or less close chemical resemblance 

 to annnonia. When solid, they are generally crystalline 

 and soluble in water, and pass easily through a moist 

 membrane by the process of liquid diffusion, differing in 

 these respects from the albuminoids, many of which are 

 slightly or not at all soluble in water, and all of which are 

 non-crystalline, and diffuse with extreme slowness. Most 

 of them, when boiled with dilute acids or alkalies, give off 

 their nitrogen, wholly or in part, as ammonia. 



The first one to be discovered was asparagin (amido- 

 succinamic acid) by Vanquelin and Eobinet in 1805^ in 

 asparagus shoots. The same body has since been found 

 in a large niunber of plants or parts of plants, and appears 

 to be quite widely distributed in the vegetable khigdom. 



