[Imbibition in seeds of pisum sativum : II. Imbibition in an atmosphere with controlled humidity].

A study of imbibition in seeds in a saturated atmosphere led to the following conclusions: 1. After a first slow phase of widely varying duration the hydration of the seeds can be expressed by an equation of the exponential type [Formula: see text] where C varies little from seed to seed. 2. The maximum water content is dependent on the temperature and varies from seed to seed. 3. Above a water content of 16% the energy of hydration is 1.1 kcal/degree-mole. 4. The water concentration gradient decreases rapidly below the level of critical hydration. 5. This critical hydration is 14% for the cotyledons, 32% for the germ axes and 10% for the seed coats.