To determine whether the developmental stage of germinatingseeds correlated well with the developing seed sizes, seeds wereexamined by light microscopy during the germination process fordistinct and reliably discriminatable morphologies. The fourdefined morphologies were then used to define developmentalstages. At stage 1, the seed was imbibed, but no significantdevelopment was detected. At stage 2, the embryo was enlargedwith an increased volume, becoming rather irregular oval in shape.At stage 3, the protocorm stage, the visible development of theembryo resulted in an irregular globular green structure, andfinally stage 4 is defined as when the protocorm has the first clearvisible signs of a developed leaf primordium (Fig. 1). Germinationin our experiment is defined as when the seed is swollen, becomingsomewhat irregular oval in shape, which is equivalent to stage 2 inthe criteria defined above