GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 607 



organisms can assume one of three states — biosis (life) ; 

 hypnosis (trance) : necrosis (death). 



The evidence with regard to ' longevity ' in hypnotic 

 seeds is very incomplete. Giglioli has suggested that 

 these, after perfect desiccation are immortal ; this is per- 

 fecdy unwarranted, for, up to the present, no seed — as far 

 as I am aware — has been ever completely desiccated. That 

 ordinary hypnotic seeds with the average determined 

 aqueous content of 10 to 12 per cent, are not immortal, is a 

 truism. Jodin explains loss of hypnosis by intramolecular 

 changes, analogous to those which occur in amorphous sub- 

 stances on becoming crystalline in lapse of time, without the 

 aid of external energy. There seems no objection to this 

 view. 



In conclusion it may not be considered highly irrelevant 

 to deprecate most strongly the laxity displayed by many 

 phytologists in their methods of nomenclature. Plants 

 are frequently specified as peas, beans, etc., a procedure 

 that detracts very considerably from the value of their 

 work. A pea, for example, may belong either to the genus 

 jPzsum, or to La^/iyrus ; also, a bean may either belong 

 to Vicia (Faba) or Phaseolus. Such terms hardly beseem 

 pages of a modern horticultural periodical, a fortiori those 

 of a scientific one. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



(i) A. BUKGERSTEIN. Beobachtungen lib. d. Keimkraftdauer, 

 etc. Verliandl. Zool.-Bot. Ges. PFz>«., 45, 414, 1895. 



(2j C. DE Candolle. Sur la vie latente des graines. Arch. Sci. 

 Phys. Nat., 33,497, i895- 



(3) J. W. White. Flora of the Avon-bed, Trans. Bristol Nat. 



Sec. 



(4) A. Peter. Culturversuche mit " ruhenden " Samen. Nachr. 



V. d. kon. Ges. d. IViss. u. d. G.- A. -Univ. z. Gottingen, 17, 

 ^71, 1893. 



(5). V. Jodin. Vie latente des graines. C. R. de I'Acad. d. Sci., 

 122, 1349, 1896. 



(6; C. Darwin, On the Action of Sea-water on the Germination 

 of Seeds, /our. Linn. Soc, i, 130, 1857. 



(7) J. Salter. On the Vitality of Seeds after Prolonged Sub- 

 mersion in the Sea. /did., 140, 

 ' 41 



