146 Prof. J. R. Green. On the Germination of [Jan. 30, 



Clarke with tlio nerve-fibres which radiate in bundles from the grey 

 matter of that region into the lateral column, and to show that some 

 -of the fibres with which these are related pass out transversely well 

 into that area which is occupied almost exclusively (man) by fibres 

 of the crossed pyramidal tract. Concerning some of the outlying 

 cells in the more dorsal portion of the lateral column, the same in- 

 ferences may be drawn ; and some of them would seem to be con- 

 nected with fibres of the posterior roots that curve round the lateral 

 aspect of the caput cornu posterioris. Of the outlying cells in the 

 posterior column, if they are outlying members of Clarke's group, the 

 relations which they suggest for that group are — 



i. That the group is connected directly with certain of the median 

 fibres of the posterior spinal roots, namely, those which after an up- 

 ward course in Burdach's column plunge into the grey matter of the 

 base of the posterior horn. 



ii. That some at least of the cells of that group are interpolated, 

 more or less immediately, into the course of medullated nerve-fibres 

 of large calibre. 



The question naturally arises, May not these cells in the posterior 

 column of the Mammalian cord represent the bipolar cells discovered 

 by Freud,* in the cord of Petromyzon Planeri, to be in direct com- 

 munication with fibres of the posterior roots ? If so may Clarke's 

 column be considered a portion of the ganglion of the posterior spinal 

 nerve-root which has been retained in the interior of the spinal cord 

 in the thoracic and certain other regions ? 



III. " On the Germination of the Seed of the Castor-oil Plant 

 (Ricinus communis)." By J. R. GREEN, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., 

 Professor of Botany to the Pharmaceutical Society of 

 Great Britain. Communicated by Professor M. Foster, 

 Sec. R.S. Received January 29, 1890. 



(Abstract.) - 



The older views of the transformations of the reserve products of 

 this plant, as advanced by Sachs and other writers, took account only 

 of the oil present in the cells, and were briefly, that it undergoes by 

 oxidation a conversion into carbohydrate, the idea of this change being 

 chiefly based on the observation that as the oil disappears from the 

 endosperm daring germination, starch appears in various parts of the 

 embryo. Later writers have suggested the existence of a ferment, 

 splitting up the fat into glycerine and fatty acid, and the further trans- 

 formation of the latter into the starch. 



* Fr'ud, ' Vienna Sitzungsberichte,' January, 1877. 



