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Seedlings of Zea Mais and Phoenix dactylifera . 
in the plant-house. At the end of four months I found that the reserve 
cellulose of the seed was entirely consumed, and that the absorbing organ 
filled all the space occupied by the cellulose. The amount of cytoplasm in 
the cells is very small ; in none is there more than a thin parietal layer, and 
in many the nuclei have broken down and been absorbed. In the epidermal 
cells the amount of cytoplasm is very small. Strands radiate from the 
nucleus to different parts of the cell. The layer of cytoplasm on the distal 
wall is usually thicker than on the other walls. In some cells the cytoplasm 
has begun to break down into a disorganized mass of granules. 
The nuclei, situated in various parts of the cell, have a smooth hyaline 
appearance and are devoid of chromatin. They still have a small, distinct 
nucleolus, which is about the same size as when activity began. The whole 
condition of affairs suggests that the cells no longer possess the function of 
actively secreting enzymes, but are now breaking down and being absorbed 
by the growing plant. The cells in the centre of the absorbing organ were 
the first to disappear, but the process of dissolution goes on until finally the 
epidermal cells are reached. 
Taking a general view of the changes in the secret ing-cells in Phoenix , 
we first find them short and thick, containing large spherical nuclei and 
densely granular cytoplasm which is distinctly basophil. During the first 
five or six days the cells increase in size, due to the absorption of water, but 
the contents show scarcely any change in composition. When secretion 
begins, the nuclei contain small granules of chromatin and small nucleoli. 
As secretion progresses they increase in size slowly until near the end of the 
third week ; then the nucleoli begin to diminish, followed a little later by the 
chromatin granules. The cells and their contents are strongly erythrophil at 
this stage, and the proteid granules have nearly disappeared from the cyto- 
plasm. The cytoplasm itself begins to disappear at the end of the fourth 
week, and finally the cells contain only a disorganized mass of substance. 
It is quite evident that if my observations have been correct there are 
some differences between the secreting cells of Zea and those of Phoenix . 
The nuclei of the epidermal cells in Zea contain, at the beginning of activity, 
varying amounts of granular substance which soon disappear, leaving only 
the chromatin and the nucleoli. The nuclei of similar cells in Phoenix show 
no such substance. 
The position of the nucleus in the cells of the epidermal layer is 
different in the two cases. In Phoenix it is almost always found at the 
centre of the cell ; in Zea it moves to the distal end of the cell as the 
activity of secretion progresses. 
It may be that the behaviour of the nucleus in the latter instance is in 
accord with the views of Haberlandt (’87), Townsend ('97), Harper (’99), and 
others, that the nucleus is usually situated in that part of the cell where 
the most active metabolism occurs. But nothing definite can be stated 
