1 62 Rendle. — On the development of 
rejected idea is more nearly correct than the conclusion at 
which Pfeffer eventually arrives, inasmuch as the grains are 
evidently actually secreted by and in the protoplasm itself. 
Until the cotyledons completely fill the seed-coat, there 
is no trace of the aleurone-grains ; the cells contain a con- 
spicuous nucleus slung in the centre by thick protoplasmic 
bridles or sometimes lying in the parietal protoplasm. In 
the latter is the layer of chlorophyll-corpuscles in which 
small grains of starch appear, which, by gradual increase in 
size and number, have filled the corpuscles by the time the 
cotyledons have filled the seed-coat. When this stage is 
reached the seed begins to swell and its outline can be traced 
through the pod. If we examine sections of the cotyledons 
at this stage, the cells are seen to contain small spherical 
or oval bodies partly or wholly projecting from the granular 
protoplasm, whether the parietal layer, or that surrounding 
the nucleus or forming the connecting bridles (Fig. i). These 
bodies at first appear as little convex protrusions, but rapidly 
increase in size till spherical or oval bodies are formed more 
or less embedded in the protoplasm. They stain deeply, more 
so than the protoplasm itself, with iodine, haematoxylin, 
Hofmann’s blue, and eosin, and the staining is perfectly homo- 
geneous. Nowhere in the cell is there any suspicion of solid 
mineral matter ; crystals of calcium oxalate and globoids are 
alike absent. 
If a section be mounted in iodine and watched while 
dilute potash (i per cent, or 5 per cent, solutions were used) 
is run under the cover-slip, the bodies are seen to swell up 
considerably, and project into the vacuole, while the sub- 
stance contained in them evidently dissolves. In the now 
very transparent section their fine clear distended outlines 
are seen to be in continuity with the protoplasm. If we now 
carefully wash, by drawing a little water through, and then 
run in iodine, the section shrinks and again becomes stained, 
but the deeply staining bodies have gone ; we can still see 
however, especially in the uncompressed cells towards the out- 
side; the delicate stained protoplasmic membranes in perfect 
