Stopes and Fujii. The nutritive relations of the surrounding tissaes etc. 17 
Certain it is. that in all the Gymnosperms we have so far 
examinecl a thiek pitted wall such as we have described is to be 
found. and it is remarkahly uniform in its structure and appearance 
in all the genera. 
o 
General Conclusions. 
In the endosperm eells packed with stored tood sruris we lind 
large mini ei a of protein grains of considerable size in addition to 
the starch (cf. hg. 5 and 8) and. as we have already pointed ont 
it wonld appear equally extraordinary to snggest that these grains 
either of starch or protein. forced themselves from cell to cell as 
such. The transit of carbohvdrates as sugars has heen known for 
e. C. 
long. and the work of Schulze. Vines and others has taught us 
that storage protein materials in seeds do not travel as such dming 
gerruination. but are hist split up by the acdon of enzvmes to 
soluble simpler forms in which they pass from cell to ceT and 
which are later rebuilt to protein substances with the addition of 
carbohydrates and mineral salts: and it is most probable that 
practically the same thing holds good whiie the food is accnmnlating 
in the voung endosperm. Xotwithstanding this we have found manv 
groups of very small pits in the cell walls of the usual endosperm 
cells. the whole System of pits being just like that found in the 
wall of the egg cell itself exeept that the groups are smaller. and 
as the walls of the endosperm cells are thin. they are rauch less 
conspicuous than they are in the egg wall. In them too the pit 
closing membrane will be traversed by groups of plasmodesmen. 
Xow therefore. when in the egg cell itself (where its very thiek 
wall renders the pits in it conspicuous) there are depositecL starch 
grains and protein grains. why shoukt one be any niore ready to 
believe that the starch and protein stufe entered the egg in this 
solid form than one is in the case of the endosperm cells V 
The Statement of some workers. that there are large open 
Communications through the pits between egg cell and jacket cells 
is quite contrary to the facts we have observed. and the view that 
protein granules pass from cell to cell as such, is against the 
current acknowledged theories for the passage of food sturis 
between two neighbouring cells. Similariy the passage of whole 
nuclei or large portions of them through the membrane closing the 
big pits. which is perforated only by plasmodesmen pores far too hne 
to adrnit even the individual chromosomes. (cf. hg. 1 and 2) must 
be looked upon as an abnormal phenomenon. 
In this preliminary discussion of nutrition. we have confined 
our attention to certain carbohydrates and protein snbstance in 
general: but there are of course other impoTtant organic compounds 
such as amide. hexorioase. arginin etc. as well as in organic salts 
to be considered in the nhvsiologv of nutrition of the egg. Thev 
JL v C-1 ' s — — t 
will be treated in the second part of this research. 
As a result of our comparative study of the Gymnosperms 
Beihefte Bot. Centralbl. Bd. XX. Abt. I. Heft l. - 
