ON THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 79 



I now come to that part of the subject where, from the expla- 

 nation already given, I hope it will be in my power to explain the 

 reasons why I was induced to try the experiments I set out with 

 taking notice of, and which I hope will be found, on proper trial, 

 to be very beneficial. It is to seeds damaged by being too long 

 kept in a dry state, or hurt by too much fire heat, or heat of the 

 sun, that my attention has been principally directed, It has been 

 often recommended to apply substances readily yielding oxygen; 

 and I have myself tried oxalic acid frequently, but without any 

 perceptible effect ; and. from experiments lately instituted, it ap- 

 pears that more than the quantity of oxygen, or about one-third 

 contained in common air, is not beneficial, though this proportion 

 is absolutely necessary. 



Experiments lately made by Mr. Charles Maltuen, and narrated 

 in Brewster's Journal of Science, he found that the negative or 

 alkaline pole of a battery caused seeds to vegetate in much less 

 time than the positive, and he was thence induced to experiment 

 on seeds in glasses filled with acetic, nitric, and sulphuric acids, 

 and also in water rendered alkaline by potash and ammonia. In 

 the alkaline the seeds vegetated in thirty hours, and were well 

 developed in forty ; while in the nitric and sulphuric, they took 

 seven days ; and even after a month, they had not begun to grow 

 in the acetic acid. The great benefit of the alkalies in hastening 

 the germinating process being thus so apparent, I was induced to 

 experiment on lime ; a very easily procured alkali, and which I 

 reckoned to be more efficient than any other, from the well- 

 known affinity of quick, or newly slacked lime for carbonic acid. 

 Lime, as taken from the quarry, consists of carbonate of lime, or 

 lime united to carbonic acid: and, in the act of burning, the 

 carbonic acid is driven off; and hence the great affinity of 

 newly slacked lime for carbonic acid. I depended therefore, on 

 this affinity to extract the carbon from the starch assisted by mois- 

 ture, in aid of the heat disengaged in this process, and also in 

 the above well attested effects of alkaline substances in hastening 

 the process of vegetation; and in the spring of 1835 having 

 a quantity of old spruce fir seed, I was determined to try the 

 experiment. 



It is well known by nurserymen, that the seed of the spruce fir 

 will scarcely vegetate the third year, although kept in the 

 cones; but, in the present instance, the seed had been out of the 

 cones during all that time; and the year before, or second year 

 of the seed, had been so weak, that although well damped, and 



