The Development of Bean Seeds (Phaseolus vulgaris L.).

Though the cell has been accepted as a biological unit since the time of Schleiden and Schwann, it has been ignored as the physiological unit. Numerous studies have been made on the physiology of fruits and seeds (6, 10, 19) and the embryology of many species has been described (15, 16), yet only a few attempts have been made to examine the biochemical changes on a per cell basis. It is unfortunate that so few cellular studies have been made, since they might indicate cell similarities that are not apparent at the organ level. The physiological investigations on the growth of plant cells that came to the author's attention include cowpea roots (22), corn roots (8, 11), onion roots (31), pea roots (2, 4), and apple fruit pulp (1, 20, 23); these papers are considered in the discussion of the results.