330 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
SEED STUDIES. 
Early in the history of the Station’s existence the investigators 
became interested in the subject of seeds. Starting in with some 
very simple tests to determine the viability of seeds, the investiga- 
tion ultimately assumed multitudinous phases. The initial experi- 
ment along this line was one by Doctor Sturtevant®® to determine 
if what he calls Goethe and Hilaire’s Law, that nature spares in 
one direction in order to spend in another, applies to seeds. If 
this be true, he says that “in gaining potency in fruit, we should 
expect weakness in seed; in exaggeration of bulb, a deficiency in 
leaf, etc.” Any such law, if it were proved to be correct, would 
undoubtedly be of tremendous importance to all persons engaged 
in plant raising in whatever line. It would mean that in order 
to secure large fruit we should select undersized seed. To get 
perfect fruit, we should take more or less imperfect seed, etc. To 
test this point, a very large number of weights were made of the 
fruits and seeds of various cultivated plants. The resulting figures 
showed that the assumption is wholly incorrect. Plants which pro- 
duce large fruit sometimes produce small seed and sometimes large 
seed, and the same is true of plants which produce small fruits. 
Goethe and Hilaire’s Law, even if it be true in a general way, 
cannot be thus applied. 
For the purpose of testing the vitality of seeds it has been the 
common custom with botanists and others for many years to use 
some. sort of an artificial germinator. The conditions necessary 
for the germination of seeds are: First, presence of moisture; 
second, the presence of air; third, a temperature at which the 
seed to be tested will germinate, this varying with different seeds. 
If the seeds were planted in the ground, either outside or in the 
greenhouse, the conditions demanded would be fulfilled, but owing 
to the greater inconvenience this is seldom done, artificial germi- 
nators being used instead. 
This Station at first used the saucer and blotting paper germi- 
nators. These were not wholly satisfactory. A later and more 
convenient apparatus was devised consisting of a copper box with 
a sliding glass cover with a ledge on the inside just below the 
top, the ledge supporting copper or glass rods which extend across 
the box. A long piece of cloth of the same width as the box and 
with tucks or hems sewed in at intervals completes the apparatus. 
The rods are run through these tucks or hems in the cloth and 
Rpt. 1:78 (1882). 
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