These tissues, formed in a state of repose in vegetables as in grain, have special properties; thus the berry possesses a pericarp whose tissues should remain foreign to the phenomena of germination, and these tissues show no particularity worthy of remark, but the coating of the embryo, which should play an active part, possesses, on the contrary, properties that may be compared to those of ferments. With regard to these ferments, I must further remark that I have not been able, nor am I yet able, to express in formula my opinion of the nature of these bodies, but little known as yet; I have only made use of the language mostly employed, without wishing to touch on questions raised by the effects of the presence, and by the more complex effects of living bodies, which exercise analogous actions. 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 following manner.