Newcombe. — Celhi lose-E nzymes. 6 3 
substance of the thick cotyledonary walls, naming it para- 
galactan . Subsequently Schulze 1 tested the seeds of Lupinus 
angustifolius in the same way, showing by chemical analysis 
and by a microscopical examination by Dr. Pfister that 
almost all, if not all, the material dissolved out by the 
dilute sulphuric acid came from the thickenings of the cell- 
walls. It is to be noted here that neither Cramer nor Pfister 
maintained that the walls had become thinner by their 
treatment with acid. Tschirch 2 , however, states positively 
that as germination progresses the walls become thinner and 
thinner. Nadelmann 3 , examining the seedlings of Lupinus 
albus and L. luteus at various stages of growth, states that 
when the cotyledons had begun to shrivel, the seedlings 
being nineteen days old, nearly all the cotyledonary cells 
presented only thin walls. The thickened layers of wall 
first became laminated, then radial clefts appeared which 
widened later, corrosion ensued, and the membrane was 
finally reduced to the condition of thin-walled parenchyma. 
Elfert 4 a few years later observed the behaviour of the 
cotyledonary tissue in germinating Ltipinus albus , L . luteus , 
L. angustifolius , and L. maculatus. He believed that the 
thickened walls contained no reserve cellulose, since he could 
find no thinning of membranes in the interior cells, and the 
evident thinning in the peripheral cells could be accounted 
for by the growth which these cells make during germination, 
the walls being thinned down while expanding in area. 
My own observations made on many seedlings of Lupinus 
albus have convinced me that, for this species at least, Elfert 
is right as far as the non-reduction in thickness of walls is 
concerned ; or I would prefer to say that if a reduction in 
thickness of interior cell-walls ever takes place in germinating 
1 Zur Chemie der pflanzlichen Zellmembranen, iii : Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chemie, 
Bd. 19, p. 38. 
2 Angewandte Pflanzenanatomie, p. 453. 
3 Ueber die Schleimendosperme der Leguminosen : Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., xxi 
(1890), 670. 
4 Ueber die Auflosungsweise der secundaren Zellmembranen der Samen bei ihrer 
Keimung : Bibliotheca Bot., 30 Heft, 1894. 
