Abstract
IN the last few years several opinions have been published regarding the nature of the nutritive tissue of the coffee seed. Houk1 came to the conclusion that the bulk of the mature coffee seed is perisperm formed by an enlarged nucellus, the scantily formed endosperm being evanescent. In a second paper2 the same author puts forward the view that nucellus and integument of the ovule are so intimately fused that they cannot be distinguished from each other. This hypothesis of the ‘integument-nucellus’ had already been proposed by Lloyd3. Mayne4 does not agree with Houk's assumption, and states that endosperm formation passes through a long rest period shortly after fertilization; meanwhile the nucellar tissue develops, evolving the true endosperm; later on, however, the endosperm begins to grow rapidly, replacing the nucellar tissue, which in the mature seed is represented by the inner layer of the ‘silver skin’. Leliveld5 confirms von Faber's6 opinion, that the coffee ovule contains a very small nucellus ‘surrounded by a single stout integument’. As the seed develops, the nucellar tissue is supposed to be suppressed and the integument enlarges, surrounding the embryo-sac. Endosperm formation is induced later on; it then takes all the space in the seed, the remnants of the integument finally forming the silver skin. The author claims to havw determined the triploid nature of the endosperm by actual chromo-some counts. Joshi7 also agrees with von Faber that the ovule of coffee ‘has a weakly developed nucellus and a massive integument’ but he seems to agree with Houk that the nutritive tissue of the coffee seed is of maternal origin.
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References
Houk, W. G., Science, 83, No. 2159, 464 465 (1936).
Houk, W. G., Amer. J. Bot., 25, 56 61 (1938).
Lloyd, F. E., Mem. Torrey Hot. Club, 8, 1 112 (1902).
Mayne, W. Wilson, Mysore Coffee Kip. Sta. Bull, No. 16, 6 (1937).
Leliveld, J. A., Arch, voor de Koffieculhuur in Ned. Indie, No. 3, 127 164 (1938).
von Faber, F. C., Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, Jara, 25, 59 160 (1912).
Joshi, A. C., Curr. Sci., 7, 236 237 (1938).
Krug, C. A., Mendes, J. E. T., and Carralho, A., Bol. Teen., No. 62 do Inst. Agronomico do Est. de S. Paulo (in the Press).
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KRUG, C., CARVALHO, A. Genetical Proof of the Existence of Coffee Endosperm. Nature 144, 515 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144515a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144515a0
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