230 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
tlicir place. It is only after their filaments have curved back in the 
same way that the style increases in length, and brings the stigma, now 
ready for pollination, into the same position that the anthers previously 
occupied. At the time when the first anthers open the corolla is green, 
with a disagreeable odour ; after the last have opened it becomes dark 
purple, with a strong odour of honey. After pollination, which is 
probably effected by insects, geotropic movements again take place in 
the flower-stalk, which bring the fruit into a pendent position. The 
flower-stalk of Cobsea affords an instance of an organ with complicated 
anisotropy. Its anatomical structure is dorsiventral. 
(4) Chemical Changes (including Respiration and Fermentation). 
Transformations of Reserve-substances during Germination.* — 
M. E. Mesnard has investigated this subject in the case of oily seeds 
and those of grasses, and states the following general conclusions : — 
Except in the case of grasses, the fatty oils are not localized in special 
layers, but are found in cells belonging to the various tissues of the 
endosperm or of the cotyledons. Like the albuminoids, they disappear 
gradually as needed for the formation of fresh tissues. The oil is always 
formed independently of starch or glucose. The author disputes the 
hypothesis of the doubling of the oils by saponification under the in- 
fluence of a special diastase ; the presence of fatty acids may be explained 
by the oxidation of the oils or of the albuminoids which always accom- 
pany them. It is probable that certain reserve- substances always exist 
from the first in the same cells as the oils. 
Germination of Ricinus.f — M. Leclerc du Sablon finds that, in the 
germination of the castor-oil plant, the amount of oil in the endosperm 
diminishes with the growth of the radicle, falling from about 67 to about 
10 per cent, of the dry weight. The proportion of fatty acid (ricinic 
acid) increases irregularly as germination proceeds. The quantity of 
glucose in the resting seed is very small ; during germination it in- 
creases rapidly, being formed more or less directly by the transforma- 
tion of starch. After reaching a maximum it again decreases, being 
converted into starch and other substances. 
Production of Saccharose in the Germination of Barley.]: — In the 
artificial germination of barley M. L. Lindet finds a progressive increase 
in the amount of saccharose, which is produced at the expense of starch. 
Function of Citric Acid in Assimilation. §— Herr C. Wehmer be- 
lieves that the sphaerocrystals and raphides, which have hitherto been 
considered to consist invariably of calcium oxalate, are frequently com- 
posed rather of calcium citrate. Their chemical reactions agree with 
this hypothesis. He suggests also that the carbonic acid set free in 
respiration need not always be the result of the breaking up of molecules 
of albumen, but may also be derived from the splitting up of acids rich 
in oxygen. 
* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xl. (1893) pp. 35-42. 
t Comptes Rendus, cxvii.(1893) pp. 524-7. % Tom. cit , pp. GG8-70. 
§ Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gcsell., xl. (1893) pp. 333-43 (10 figs.). 
