With these reservations I shall proceed to examine the tissues in the berry
which help toward the germination.

THE EMBRYO (10, see woodcut) is composed of the root of the plant, with
which we have nothing to do here. This root of the plant which is to grow
is embedded in a mass of cells full of fatty bodies. These bodies present
this remarkable particularity, that they contain among their elements
sulphur and phosphorus. When you dehydrate by alcohol 100 grammes of the
embryo of wheat, obtained by the same means as the membrane (a process
indicated later on), this embryo, treated with ether, produces 20 grammes
of oils composed elementarily of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, azote, sulphur,
and phosphorus. This analysis, made according to the means indicated by M.
Fremy, shows that the fatty bodies of the embryo are composed like those of
the germ of an egg, like those of the brain and of the nervous system of
animals. It is necessary for us to stop an instant at this fact: in the
first place, because it proves that vegetables are designed to form the
phosphoric as well as the nitrogenous and ternary aliments, and finally,
because it indicates how important it is to mix the embryo and its
dependents with the bread in the most complete manner possible, seeing that
a large portion of these phosphoric bodies always become decomposed during
the baking.

COATING OF THE EMBRYO.--This membrane (6), which is only an expansion of
the embryo, surrounds the endosperm; it is composed of beautiful irregular
cubic cells, diminishing according as they come nearer to the embryo. These
cells are composed, first, of the insoluble cellular tissue; second,
of phosphate of chalk and fatty phosphoric bodies; third, of soluble
cerealine. In order to study the composition and the nature of this
tissue, it must be completely isolated, and this result is obtained in the