426 Forestry Quarterly. 



a plant from every viable seed. Favorable and unfavorable site 

 and season produce far less variation when heavy seeds are sowed. 



F. D. 



Busse, Julius : Bin Weg zur Verbesscrung unseres Kiefernsaatgutes. 

 Zeitschrift fiir Forst- and Jagdwesen. May, 1913. Pp. 300-313. 



Quite different conclusions from the fore- 

 W eight going are briefed below. 



and That heavier and larger seed furnishes a 



Germination . better germination per cent, than light seed 

 of has been recognized for a long time by sil- 



Seed. viculturists, excepting Mayr. Dr. Centgraf 



has examined some 247 germination tests 

 of pine as to the relation of the weight of 1000 grains to their 

 germination and fails to find this relation between weight and 

 germinative energy (ten-day results) or germination per cent: 

 60% seed varied per M between 5.25 and 8.74 gr. 

 70% seed varied per M between 5.35 and 6.85 gr- 

 80% seed varied per M between 5.25 and 6.56 gr. 

 90% seed varied per M between 5.30 and 6.60 gr. 



It was remarked that the weight varied considerably from year 

 to year. The years 190S and 1909 furnished seed by .8 to i gr. 

 per M heavier than that of the poor years 1910-12, so that the 

 same conditions influence the seed quality favorably or unfavor- 

 ably. Within the same year's crop, however, high and low ger- 

 mination per cents occur in quite even distribution. The curves 

 constructed show, however, no lawful relation, although appar- 

 ently within the year's crop the heavier seed average a smaller 

 germinative energy. The 35 heaviest samples germinated under 

 65 per cent. The author attempts an explanation of the slower 

 germination, at least as due to a thicker seed coat of the heavier 

 seed, which determines in part its weight, and which takes up 

 water more slowly, than the thin coat of the light seed. This ex- 

 planation finds also support in the observation that after 10 days 

 the germination per cent, increases more rapidly with the slower 

 seeds, namely in the time of 11-20 days- 



40% 1 50. %|6o. %|70. %|8o. %|90. % seed, 

 increased 13 \11.7 |ii.5 j 9-8 | 4-2 | 2.3 per cent, in ger- 

 mination. From this the author concludes that the lo-day-ger- 



