Germination of Helianthus animus. 695 
remainder was converted directly into sugar. He held that the starch could 
not be a transition between the oil and sugar because the oil in many seed¬ 
lings is transformed directly into sugar, while starch appears only in the starch 
sheath. On the other hand, he argued against the idea that the oil was first 
changed to sugar and then to starch, because starch often appears in the 
germination in many places in the seedling where sugar is not present before 
or at the time of its appearance there. 
Peters (6) in 1861, by analyses of the seedlings of Cucurbita Pepo, found 
that during germination the amount of oil decreased from 49-5 % of the dry 
material to 12*7 % when the seedlings were well developed, and that during 
this period there was an increase in the amount of carbohydrate, especially 
starch. 
Fleury ( 7 ) in 1865, in a series of investigations carried out on the seed¬ 
lings of the castor-oil bean, sweet almond, rape, and spurge, observed again 
the fact that as the amount of oil decreased, there was an increase in the 
amount of sugar. He also observed the fact that the amount of oxygen in 
early stages of the seedlings was greater than the amount in the resting 
seeds. Pie observed that some of the oil had become volatile, and that one 
or more non-volatile acids had made their appearance. He concluded that 
during the germination an oxidation of the oil takes place with the forma 
tion of sugar. He suggests that this might be due to some catalytic agent. 
In 1871 Muntz (8), in a study of the seeds of rape, poppy, and radish, 
observed for the first time that during germination the oil in the seeds gives 
rise to free fatty acid. He found that the amount of free fatty acid in the 
oil increased from 10 % in the resting seed to as high as 98 % in the ten-day 
seedling. He concluded that during the germination the oil is split up into 
free fatty acid and glycerine, and that the glycerine at once disappears, since 
he was not able to detect it at all. He also observed that the free fatty acid 
during the time of germination undergoes a slow but progressive absorption 
of oxygen not exceeding 3 % to 4 % of its weight. 
Laskovsky ( 9 ) (1874) worked with the seeds of the squash and verified 
the earlier work of Peters. He observed, as did his predecessors, that 
as the content of oil diminished the amount of cellulose, starch, and sugar 
increased, and thought that it was probable that the carbohydrates were 
formed at the expense of the oil which disappeared. 
Detmer ( 10 , 11 ) in 1875 found in the study of the hemp seed that 
in seven-day seedlings the oil content had decreased from 33 % to 17 %. 
During that period starch had made its appearance and amounted to 8-9 %. 
In ten-day seedlings the amount of oil had fallen to 15 %, and the starch to 
4.6 %. Since no sugar was detected, he concluded that the starch is the 
direct product of the oil. In his work in 1880, in discussing the work of 
Muntz, he suggested that the glycerine formed is changed at once into 
unknown bodies, and that the free fatty acid might be the source of the 
3 B 2 
