80 ON THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 



sown a great deal thicker than usual, in a favourable state of the 

 weather, and in ground in good condition, still it came through 

 very thin, yellow in the colour, so weak, as scarcely to be able to 

 free its cotyledons from the ground, and not producing one-third 

 of a crop. Thus, under ordinary cicumstances, after keeping the 

 same seed a year longer, we had little reason to think it worth 

 sowing. I, however, caused the seed to be well damped a few days 

 before sowing, and then added slacked lime, the influence of which 

 was not long in being manifest. The year before when the 

 two-years-old seed had been damped, it swelled none, but ac- 

 quired a mouldy smell ; on the contrary, this third year, after 

 the quick lime had been added, it swelled off plump and full, and 

 had all the sweet smell of fresh germinating seed. It was sown 

 very thick, but the plants started fresh and vigorous through the 

 covering of soil, of a dark green colour, and in such quantity as 

 to produce a crop much thicker than usual ; and the plants grew 

 and throve as well as in the first year of the seed. I tried the same 

 experiment this year ; but from the unprecedented long-con- 

 tinued dry weather, it had not a fair trial : although however, 

 four years old, the crop is still about the same thickness as some 

 fresh Scotch pine seed sown on the same day beside it, and the 

 plants equally strong. I tried it on some magnolia seed, the 

 seedlings of which have this year grown with more than their ac- 

 customed vigour. As the whole of the plants may be seen, for 

 very little trouble, in our nursery grounds (at Kilmamoc), and 

 as the good effects, I think, have been made apparent, I hope it 

 will not be considered trespassing too far on your time to give a 

 detail of the method I woidd like pursued. Let it be understood 

 that the nature of the experiment applies only to seeds in which 

 the albumen has become hard and dry, from long keeping, kiln- 

 drying, exposure to a hot sun in crossing the equator, &c. and not 

 to such as have been wasted, and the albumen destroyed or da- 

 maged by moisture, heating in a green state, &c. or when it is 

 wanted to hasten the ordinary process of vegetation in seeds that 

 are tardy Let the seed to be experimented on be spread on a 

 floor, or in a box or saucer, according to qiiantity, and thoroughly 

 damped (more or less according to the nature of the seed, as to 

 its naturally dry or oily condition); let the whole be well mixed 

 together so as every seed may receive its proportion of moisture 

 from one-eighth to one-tenth of the bulk; and mix the seed 

 again well, so that each may receive its proportion of lime ; lay it 

 up in a heap, and, when it begins to get dry, have it turned and 



