GERMINATION. 769 



plants previously; unknown in the locality spring up, hence the 

 seeds of such must have lain dormant for frequently a very 

 lengthened period. 



Preservation and Transportation of Seeds. — As many persons 

 frequently wish to send seeds to a distance, a few words on the 

 best means of preserving them for that purpose will doubtless 

 be acceptable to our readers. When seeds are enclosed in hard 

 or dry pericarps, they should be preserved and transported in 

 them. This is the case with those of many Leguminous and 

 Coniferous plants. When the pericarps are soft or hable to 

 decaj, the seeds should be removed from them. In all cases, 

 seeds when required for preservation should be gathered when 

 quite ripe, as at that period their proximate principles are in a 

 more stable condition than when unripe, when they are very- 

 liable to change. Seeds should be also preserved quite dry. 

 Seeds of a farinaceous natm-e, if ripe and dry, will retain their 

 vitality for a long period, and such may be readily trans- 

 ported to a distance. For the latter purpose they should be 

 placed in perfectly dry papers in a dry coarse bag, wliich should 

 be afterwards suspended from a nail in a cabin, in which posi- 

 tion they are maintained at a moderate temperature and exposed 

 to free ventilation. Such seeds require no further care. But 

 seeds of an oily or 'mucilaginous nature, or which contain much 

 astringent matter, require, as a further protection, to be excluded 

 from the air. For this purpose they are best packed in stout 

 boxes lined with tin, and filled with dry sand or charcoal 

 powder. The sand or charcoal powder and the seeds should be 

 placed alternately in layers, and the whole firmly pressed to- 

 gether. Such seeds, however, even when thus protected, fre- 

 quently lose their vitality. A coating of wax has in some cases 

 been found to preserve effectually the vitality of seeds. Pro- 

 bably seeds which are diflScult of preservation, might be trans- 

 ported in bottles containing carbonic acid, and hermetically 

 sealed. Wardian cases are also an important means for trans- 

 porting seeds (see p. 743), and should be resorted to, when 

 possible, in all doubtful cases. 



Germination. — Bv germination we mean the power or act by 

 which the latent vitality of the embryo is brought into activity^ 

 and it thus becomes an independent plant capable of supporting 

 itself. The germination of Acotyledonous plants has already 

 been sufficiently alluded to, when treating of the. Root, at page 

 127, and in the sections devoted to the Organs of Reproduction, 

 and the Sexual Reproduction of Acotyledonous Plants. Our 

 future remarks will apply therefore solely to Cotyledonous plants. 



Length of Time required for Germination. — The time required 

 for germination varies much according to the nature of the 

 seeds and the conditions under which they are placed. Gene- 

 rally speaking seeds germinate most rapidly directly after they 

 3d 2 



