Nov. 26, 1921 Storage of Coniferous Tree Seed 485 



(8) Some geographic locations are more favorable for seed storage 

 than others. Fort Bayard, Pikes Peak, Pocatello, and Lake Clear 

 Junction — all points of relatively high altitudes and, with the possible 

 exception of Lake Clear Junction, of low relative humidities — stand out 

 as exceptionally favorable localities. Four middle-western points, 

 Waukegan, Dundee, La\\Tence, and Warsaw, and one Atlantic sea- 

 board point. New Haven, stand out as unfavorable localities for seed 

 storage. Such points should apparently be avoided where ordinary 

 methods of storage are followed. No one of the geographic locations 

 shows marked superiority over another when the seeds are stored in 

 air-tight bottles. 



(9). In respect to sustained vitality, the seeds employed in this study 

 range themselves in the following sequence, Avith the strongest first: 

 western yellow pine, lodgepole pine, western white pine, white pine, 

 Engelmann spruce, and Douglas fir. 



WHAT THE STUDY SHOWS 



The points brought out by the study can be shown better, it is thought, 

 by the accompanying tables and curves with a few comments than by 

 lengthy discourse. 



EFFECT OF CONTAIN'ER 



Table I, together with the curves (fig. 2), brings out what was very 

 evident during the progress of the study, the striking superiority of the 

 seeds stored in the air-tight bottles over those stored in any other con- 

 tainer. This is particularly true when the storage period extends beyond 

 one year and is more striking in the case of Engelmann spruce, Douglas 

 fir, and white pine than in that of lodgepole, western yellow, and western 

 white pines. The seeds of the former three species are apparently more 

 likely to deteriorate than those of the latter three and after two years 

 of storage are of little worth. 



It seems safe to assume (barring any hypothesis of post-ripening of 

 the seed during storage) that the germination of the seed before it was 

 put in storage was at least equal to that of the seed stored in bottles at 

 the end of one year. Based on this assumption. Table I shows that the 

 average deterioration for all species has at the end of five years been for 

 seed stored in a paper bag 45 per cent; in a paper bag paraffined, 42.3 

 per cent; in a cloth bag, 47.8 per cent; in a cloth bag oiled, 51.4 per 

 cent; and in the air-tight bottle, 10.8 per cent. In this connection it 

 should be noted that Pinus ponderosa stored four years, Picea engelmanni 

 and Pseudotsuga taxifolia three years, and Pinus contorta two j^ears 

 show little if any decrease in the total germination of bottle-stored seed. 

 In fact, germination at the end of two and three years has in some cases 

 been greater than at the end of one year. The behavior of Pinus strobus 

 and Pinus monticola seed is a puzzle. It will be noted that the germina- 

 tion percentage of bottle-stored seed decreases through the second 

 and third years, but at the end of the fifth year (19 14) it equals or 

 betters that of the second year (191 1). The 1914 germination of these 

 two species with seed stored in the other four containers is practically 

 equal to the 1912 germination. Possibly the conditions for germination 

 in 1914 were somewhat superior to those in 1912, or there may have been 

 some physiological development to account for it. 



