76 Prof. J. Reynolds Green and Mr. H. Jackson. [Mar. 22, 



set free to combine again, but even then the quantities do not seem to be 

 proportional. Another fate must attend a considerable quantity of the fat. 

 To this point we shall return later. 



These results suggest that the utilisation of the oily reserves is a much 

 more complicated process than was supposed. The enquiry took from this 

 point a wider range, and soon involved the abandonment of the idea that the 

 separate reserves undergo independent changes during germination. 



The Sugars of Eicinus. 



A more complete study of the sugar was next undertaken. Du Sablon 

 showed, in 1895* that it is a mixture of at least two sugars, one of which 

 has not the power of reducing Fehling's solution. In our experiments, a 

 large number of seeds having been germinated, the endosperms were separated 

 from the embryos and ground to a paste in a mortar. The mass was then 

 extracted with large quantities of water, by keeping it for some hours in 

 a steriliser at 100° C, removing the water at intervals till the extract 

 showed that all the sugar had been dissolved. The extracts were mixed 

 and concentrated to about one-tenth of their volume. Addition of normal 

 acetate of lead separated from this extract the acids present, together with 

 the bulk of the proteids and certain other constituents. These were filtered 

 off, and the sugars were precipitated from the filtrate by adding basic lead 

 acetate and ammonia. The precipitate was separated by filtration and 

 suspended in water, and the lead removed by a stream of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. The solution so obtained was concentrated, and the process 

 repeated, the final solution being then concentrated to a thick syrup, which 

 showed the presence of two constituents possessing different solubilities in 

 alcohol. By a repetition of concentration and extraction, the syrup was 

 ultimately separated into two parts, one of which reduced Fehling's solution, 

 while the other did not. Unfortunately the separation did not involve the 

 complete isolation of the two sugars, as the reducing power of the first fraction 

 was always increased after boiling with dilute mineral acid. The increase was 

 not constant in different preparations, a fact which pointed to incomplete 

 separation rather than to the reducing sugar being of the maltose type. 



The second fraction of the syrup was, however, free from the reducing 

 sugar. Treated with invertase or with a dilute mineral acid it speedily 

 reduced Fehling's fluid. A quantity of it was concentrated nearly to dryness 

 and with some difficulty dissolved in alcohol. Addition of ether to a little 

 of the solution caused precipitation of the sugar. To the great bulk of the 



* Du Sablon, " Sur la Germination des Graine3 Oleagineuses," 'Eev. Gen. de Bot.,' 

 1895, p. 145. 



