Germination of H elianthus annuus r II. 895 
thus a measure of the amount of free fatty acid present in the oil, and 
indicates the degree of hydrolysis which it has undergone. The acid value 
of the ether extract of the seed is only 1*6, and this value remains constant 
for the oily matter of the cotyledons for the first two stages of the seedlings, 
until one-half of the ether extract has disappeared. In Stage III the value has 
risen to only 4 -6. This value increases to 12-8 in Stage IV and to 66-8 in 
Stage V, when only 5-3 per cent, of the original ether extract remains in the 
cotyledons. The acid value of the ether extract of the hypocotyls and roots 
is 18-2 in Stage I, and gradually increases until it has a value of 97-8 in the 
last stage examined. 
The acid value, however, indicates nothing as to the nature of the free 
acids present In the ether extract. They may represent organic acids other 
than the fatty acids, since many of the former are soluble in ether and would 
thus be present in the ether extract. In this investigation no attempt was 
made to identify the free acids present in the ether extract, and they were 
arbitrarily calculated as oleic acid. If fatty acids of lower molecular weight, 
however, are present, the value obtained would indicate a greater percentage 
of free fatty acid than really occurs. 
The amount of free fatty acid estimated as oleic is less than 1 per cent, 
of the ether extract of the seed, and that value remains constant for the oily 
extract of the cotyledons until Stage III of the seedling, when it amounts to 
2-3 per cent, of the ether extract present in the cotyledons. The amount 
gradually increases until it constitutes one-third of the oily material present 
in the cotyledons at the last stage examined. Some of the free acids 
present in the ether extract of the cotyledons at the later stages of the seed- 
ling are those of low molecular weight and soluble in water, as the estimation 
of the total soluble acids shows. Not all the free acids, however, are those 
of the lower groups, for the determination of the soluble acids present in the 
oil shows a quantity too small to account for all the free acid present in the 
ether extract of the cotyledons. For example, take the ether extract of 
the cotyledons at Stage IV. The free fatty acid calculated as oleic that is 
present in the oily material amounts to 13-8 per cent. If the acid were 
calculated as butyric it would amount to 4-3 per cent, of the ether extract. 
But the total quantity of soluble free and combined fatty acids, estimated as 
butyric, at that stage amounts to less than 1 per cent, of the ether extract. 
It seems probable, then, that most of the free acids present in the ether 
extract of the cotyledons represent those of higher molecular weight than 
those that are soluble in water. 
In the hypocotyls and roots the amount of free fatty acid, estimated as 
oleic, increases from 9-1 per cent, of the ether extract at Stage 1 to 49-1 per 
cent, at Stage V. During the first three stages examined there is evidence 
that a considerable part of the free fatty acid present in the ether extract of 
the hypocotyls and roots represents adds of higher molecular weight. Thus 
