Scalding as a Stimulant to Acacia Seeds. 477 



already more or less withered. On some of these there was 

 still a drop of a thick transparent saccharine fluid, evidently of 

 the same flavour and composition as the crystals. I washed 

 those ovaries which seemed to possess the most vitality : and, 

 at the end of a few hours, there was a decided exhibition of a 

 fresh supply of the syrup from several of them. This syrup 

 gradually hardened, like a drop of gum, into a solid trans- 

 parent, and perfectly colourless, mass ; but those which I had 

 received before exhibited some distinct crystalline facets, above 

 a line in length. The largest mass was three lines long, and 

 two broad, and weighed as much as four tenths of a grain. 

 Eight fragments from different flowers weighed, together, 

 1*8 grain. In the Gardener's Magazine, vol. iii. p. 208., is 

 the following notice, extracted from the Bidletin Universel : — 

 " i?hododendron ponticum is found to contain some grains of 

 common sugar, of a pure and white colour, on the surface of 

 the upper division of the corolla." The present example ap- 

 pears to offer the same substance, in larger masses than those 

 here alluded to. I find that the syrup always exudes from 

 the upper surface of the thickened base upon which the ovary 

 is seated, and, apparently, from a minute glandular spot placed 

 between the sinus formed by the two upper teeth of the calyx. 

 The excessive formation of the syrup, in the present example, 

 may be ascribed to a morbid state of the plant, which was in 

 a pot, and kept in a room ; and the crystals were stated to 

 have been found more particularly within some of the flowers 

 which had withered without fully expanding. 



On the Stimulus afforded to the Germination of the Seeds of an 

 Acacia by their being scalded with boiling Water. — Sir John 

 Herschell lately sent some seeds of an acacia from the Cape 

 of Good Hope, to Captain Smith of Bedford, with directions 

 that they should be scalded, in order to secure their germi- 

 nation. Captain Smith having presented me with a dozen of 

 these, I subjected them to the following experiments : — Two 

 were placed in boiling water, and left to soak for an hour, 

 until the water had become cool ; two were kept at the boil- 

 ing temperature for lj minute; two for 3 minutes; two for 

 6 minutes; and one for 15 minutes. Some of these were 

 sown immediately, under a hand-glass, in the open border ; 

 and the rest were kept for 3 or 4 days, and then sown in a hot- 

 bed. The following are the results obtained : — 

 Under the hand-glass, — 



1, boiled for 1J minute, failed. 



1-3 minutes, came up in 14 days. 



1 - 6 - - - 13 days. 



1, not steeped at all, did not germinate. 



