Notes. 
385 
The processes in the endosperm which lead to the changes thus 
briefly described are two-fold. There is first ferment action. From 
the germinating seeds can be extracted two ferments, which 
in the laboratory are found capable, the one of transforming the 
proteids into (ultimately) asparagin, and the other of splitting up the 
oil into ricinoleic acid and glycerine. The latter body can be 
detected in the process in the laboratory, though it escapes careful 
search in the plant. This probably indicates a change into sugar 
almost immediately it is formed. 
The ferments in question are not in the active condition in the 
resting seed. There they exist in the antecedent form of zymogen, 
and can be rendered active by warming their solutions with a little 
dilute acid. 
The ferment which liberates the fatty acid cannot transform the 
latter into the crystalline acid. This change appears to be brought 
about by the oxidative activity of the protoplasm of the cells. The 
endosperm retains a certain amount of vitality, for if it be detached 
from the embryo and put in suitable conditions it undergoes 
changes just as the normal seed does in germination, though more 
slowly. The mass swells, the oil is decomposed; fatty acid, 
crystalline acid, and sugar appear. The cells cannot therefore be 
regarded as mere storehouses for the food of the young plant placed 
near it in readiness to supply its wants when it begins to draw upon 
them. They are this, but they are more than this. The parent 
plant has not completed the provision for its offspring when its seed 
assumes the quiescent form; it takes it further and completes 
it when conditions call the embryo into renewed activity. In the 
castor-oil plant germination is at once the final effort of the parent 
and the first effort of the offspring in the task of the propagation 
of the species. 
J. R. GREEN, London. 
