510 NEW JERSEY AGEICULTURAL COLLEGE 



Last year the percentages Avere 25 for the first two and 75 for the 

 others^ and the year before it was 20 and 50 per cent, for the same 

 sets of asparagus. * 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS. 



Since the greenhouse was established, in 11M)(), some experiments 

 each season have been made with the germination of seeds. During 

 the first winter the various dodders and otlier similar parasites were 

 studied, and an outline of this work, with two page plates, appeared 

 in the Eeport for 1901. Last year attention was paid to the germina- 

 tion of crossed corn, and particularly the white seedlings that are 

 known as albinos and seem to be associated with close fertilization. 



During the past winter tests in germination were made with squash 

 and similar seeds. This is, in part, a continuation of experiments 

 that were started some j^ears ago and published elsewhere,* and from 

 which some facts are here produced. For testing the time required 

 for germination of various cucurbitaceous (squash-like) seeds, a shal- 

 low box, 30 by 36 inches, was filled with rich soil and placed upon a 

 table in the laboratory, and the different kinds of seeds and the rate 

 of germination are shown in the following talkie : 



* Bulletins of Botanical Department Iowa Agricultural College, 1886, pages 30-35, 

 and 1888, pages 20-26. 



