Oct. 15,1925 Translocation of Food Materials of Wheat Seedlings 737 
degree of chemical inversion that determines the supply of material 
available for respiration and growth. Wasniewski (43) reports a 
constant relation between the starch decomposed and that consumed 
in respiration, regardless of the temperature, light, and changes in 
nitrogenous and inorganic substances. Doyer (14) says “a great 
loss of energy takes place the first seven days, mostly the third and 
fourth days.” In the work here presented, the graph of Figure 3, 
showing the starch content, drops rapidly the first seven days, but 
the decline is extreme from the third to the sixth days. The sugars 
are highest at six days. The proportional increase in the dry weight 
of the axes was greatest at this period. All these facts substantiate 
the conclusions of the above investigators, showing that the greatest 
starch hydrolysis and greatest sugar content accompany greatest 
growth. 
Small amounts of starch are found in the axes at all stages here 
examined, but with a slight increase at the 25-day stage. Newton 
(88) found no starch in the leaves of winter wheat when hardened, 
Wimmer (44) found starch in all parts of the wheat plant which were 
about 6 weeks old—about 2 per cent in the leaves, 6 per cent in the 
stems, 2 per cent in the roots, and an average for the whole plant 
of 3.5 per cent. Choate (5) found no starch in the plumule or the 
root; however, her seedlings were kept in the dark. In considering 
the evidence just given, it would appear that if the seedling has good 
growing conditions it will store starch in all the tissues, but if con¬ 
ditions are not favorable no starch will be found. 
The acid hydrolyzable or hemicellulose content of wheat seedlings 
is made up largely, according to the classification given by Sherman 
(86) of xylem, found in the seeds and the tissues of plumules and roots. 
The percentage decreases slightly in the first three days, due to the 
action of cytase on the cell walls of the endosperm; after this the 
percentage based on dry weight increases, denoting that the hemi¬ 
cellulose is largely in the seed coverings which are not used. The 
percentage of hemicellulose remains about constant in plumules and 
m roots, but is twice as great in the roots as in the plumules. The 
total amount of acid-hydrolyzable substances expressed as dextrose 
increases from 3 per cent. 
The nitrogen is not converted into protein by multiplying by a 
factor, since it is felt that, while it would be desirable to express the 
nitrogen of the seed as protein, which is described by Osborne (84), 
it would be incorrect to use the same factor for the nitrogen of the 
roots, which are high in nitrogen of other forms. Deleano (12) has 
shown, with leaves of Vitis vinifera , that as long as carbohydrates 
are present the protein is not used in respiration. Davidson and 
Le Clerc (8) find that the amount of nitrogen in the plant depends 
somewhat on the soil; when nitrogen is low in the soil the plants are 
usually lower in nitrogen. Gericke (16) has found a similar relation. 
Table IV and Figures 1 and 3 show that the seed loses the nitrogen 
more slowly than the starch. The protein remains nearly constant 
in percentage of dry weight until the ninth day, which is the age at 
which the carbohydrates become deficient. Choate (5) found that the 
proteins of the endosperm are the first to be used, while the protein 
of the aleurone layer remains until very late in the germination 
stages. A large amount of nitrogen is translocated, as shown by the 
