1905.] On the Germination of Seeds of the Castor Oil Plant. 83 



This, as we have shown, is far from being the case with Ricinus. Here we 

 have a series of most complex changes set up by the parent in the endosperm, 

 accompanied by a renewed growth and revived secretory activity of the 

 parent itself. The various constituents are made to act upon each other 

 inider the influence of the protoplasm of the endosperm cells, the latter 

 showing a great increase in the amount of their protoplasm, while the 

 protoplasm initiates a complex metabolism comparable in intensity with 

 any which can be marked in the adult plant. It feeds itself, having 

 prepared the food from the reserves ; it secretes new products, which were 

 represented but sparingly in the original cell-contents, thus preparing a new 

 and completely representative food supply which it places at the disposal 

 of the embryo. At the same time, however, the latter plaj's a considerable 

 part in the scheme of nutrition, besides carrying out the processes of 

 absorption. 



A study of the distribution of the enzymes of the seed shows us that the 

 preparation of food is not all carried out by the parent. The lipase was 

 stated in the earlier paper* to originate in the endosperm cells and to 

 continue to be developed there, during the whole course of the germination. 

 The invertase and the oxidase appear to have a distribution similar to that 

 of the lipase. The trypsin, however, originates in the embryo. 



In the course of the researches made by Mr. Biffen, which have already 

 been referred to, he found that the epidermis of the young cotyledons 

 contained cells, occurring at short intervals, which stained quite differently 

 from the rest, and were full of granular contents. We prepared a large 

 number of cotyledons from seeds in course of germination, taking them at 

 an early stage when it was just possible to separate them cleanly from the 

 endosperm. They were then washed carefully in warm distilled water till 

 all organic matter was removed from their surfaces. Each cotyledon was 

 then cut in half along the mid -rib. One set of halves was dipped for a 

 moment in boiling water. The two sets were put into a solution of the 

 globulin of the seeds prepared by dissolving it from the seed in 10-per-cent. 

 solution of common salt and precipitating it by strong alcohol. The tubes 

 containing them were put for a few hours into an incubator at 30° C. At 



* A curious misstatement of what I said on this point in my earlier paper has been 

 made by Connstein, Hoyer, and "Wartenburg ('Ber. d. d. Chem. Ges.,' vol, 35 (1902), 

 p. 3988), and recently repeated by Vierling (' Journ. Suisse de Chim. et Pharro.,' vol. 42, 

 (1904), p. 391). I am represented as saying that the action of the lipase is stopped by the 

 liberation of the acids in the endosperm. My paper contains no such statement. What 

 I said was that if the enzyme was set to work in vitro in the presence of dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid it was rapidly destroyed. Eeference to my paper will show that I regarded 

 the organic acids formed in the endosperm helpful and not deleterious. — J. R. G. 



