6 g 6 Millet\—A Physiological Study of the 
starch formed. He gave the following formula to indicate a possible origin 
of starch from oleic acid :— 
C 18 H 34 0 2 + 270 = 2 (C 6 H 10 O 5 ) + 6 C 0 2 + 7 H 2 0. 
In 1890 Green ( 12 ) carried on a detailed study of the changes which 
take place in the reserve products of Ricinus communis during germination. 
He discovered the enzyme lipase, and showed that the glycerides were 
split into free fatty acid and glycerine by its action. Green thought that the 
glycerine thus formed gives rise directly to sugar, and that the free fatty acid 
gives rise to a crystalline vegetable acid soluble in water, but which he was 
unable to identify. He concluded that the starch formed in the embryo and 
young plant is a direct product of the sugar formed from the glycerine, and 
not a direct product of the oil as Sachs suggested. 
In 1891 Schmidt ( 13 ) published the results of the most extensive 
experiments that have ever been carried out on the transportation of 
the oily reserves in seedlings. He concluded that in many seedlings 
the oil as such is transported to the different parts, and that only after 
it has reached its destination is it broken up into the necessary products for 
the growth of the seedlings. His conclusions were based upon the fact that 
in seedlings in which oil transportation seems to take place, the amount of 
free fatty acid present in the place of the storage of the oil is small, and 
further, that in many parts of the plant remote from the cotyledons con¬ 
siderable quantities of neutral oil appear. He found that the cellulose walls 
of plant-cells are permeable to oil which contains free fatty acid, and that 
the greater the amount of acid the more readily permeable are the cell-walls. 
According to his view the free fatty acid unites with some substance in the 
cell-wall to form a soap which not only holds a capillary attraction for the 
oil, but in part emulsifies it and in that manner passes it through the cell- 
walls. 
Schmidt observed also a decrease in value of the iodine number in the 
unsaturated oils and fatty acids during the progress of germination. 
In 1893 Leclerc du Sablon ( 14 ) in a note states that he found a decrease 
in the amount of oil in the endosperm of Ricinus communis from 69 % in the 
resting seed to 11 % when the seedlings had reached a length of 12 cm. 
Since during that time the reducing sugar increased from 0-4 % to 14 %, he 
concluded that probably the oil was transformed into glucose. 
The same author ( 15 ) in the following year worked with the seedlings 
of the hemp. The seeds contain about 3 % of cane sugar as a reserve. At 
the beginning of germination this decreases and glucose appears. During 
the progress of germination the amount of saccharose increased, and when 
the radicles had attained a length of 5 cm. it amounted to 12 % of the dry 
material. The glucose in this time had increased to only 5 %. Leclerc du 
Sablon concluded from this that saccharose is the first product of the oil. 
The glucose is derived from the saccharose by a process of hydrolysis. 
