4) Deposition of phytin in legume seeds also occurs during the latter part of embryo growth (Maga, 1982). The accumulation of phytin does not necessarily occur uniformly throughout a tissue (Greenwood and Bewley, 1985), nor is the mineral composition of phytin the same in all parts of a seed (Lott et al., 1995). In studies of seeds using microscopy of tissues that have been fixed and embedded, large phytin globoids frequently appear as holes, either because the phytin has dissolved during the processing or because the globoid failed to become infiltrated by the resin and so fell out when the section was cut.