New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 355 
cabbage and cauliflower the maximum specific gravity of small 
seeds is about 1.21; but none of the large seeds run as high as 
1.20. ; 
As a rule, as has already been stated, the seeds largest in vol- 
ume have the fewest floaters among them; but there are some 
notable exceptions. For instance, in a lot of egg plant seed 
examined, all of the largest seeds were floaters. These seeds 
were actually the heaviest in milligrams of all seeds in the pack- 
age and were to all outward appearances the finest seeds in the 
lot. They were closely examined with a view to discovering some 
outward indication of their lightness, but none was found. But 
in the case of egg plant the general rule also holds good that the 
smallest seeds are in large part floaters. 
Schertler found that specific gravity increases with the size of 
the seed. For practical purposes this statement is correct, but 
strictly it is only a half truth. The author’s investigations were 
presumably made by the method of samples, and this method 
would lead to this error, since the method of samples does not 
show distribution, but only averages. The fact is, as has already 
been brought out, that small seeds attain to the highest specific 
gravity; but there are so many small seeds of low specific grav- 
ity that the average specific gravity of small seeds is less than 
that of large seed.- Schertler’s observation that abnormally large 
seeds have a less specific gravity than do good medium sized 
ones agrees with the observations of the present writer. Lyon 
concludes that large kernels of wheat are generally of higher 
Specific gravity than are small ones, and gives figures showing 
the proportion of light seed in small, medium and large seed. 
RELATION BETWEEN SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF SEED 
AND VIGOR OF GERMINATION. 
Noteworthy correlations also exist between the specific gravity 
of the seed and its vigor of germination. Moreover the ranges 
within which seeds germinate most vigorously, less vigorously 
or not at all may be rather closely delimited. In anticipation of 
a later discussion in this report, it may be remarked that vigor of 
germination appears to be associated with storage of reserve 
material, and that in the range of specific gravity which repre- 
sents the largest storage of reserve material the most vigorous 
