THE ANNALS 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[THIRD SERIES.] 
No. 100. APRIL 1866. 
XXVI.—On Germination at different Degrees of Constant Tem- 
perature. By M. Apu. bE CANDOLLE*. 
[Plate IV. ]} 
Two motives gave rise to my undertaking a series of experiments 
upon germination at different degrees of temperature. First, I 
desired to continue and complete my earlier experiments upon 
the duration of the germination and of the germinative power of 
seeds of different species or familiest. I also wished to study 
in a direct manner, and in regard to a particular function, the 
effect of time in compensating a low temperature, and that of 
an elevated temperature in diminishing the amount of time re- 
quired for one function. It is well known how this problem has 
engaged the attention of agriculturalists and naturalists for some 
years; but, in almost all the known facts, there is always an 
imextricable mixture of several functions considered collectively, 
either of the influence of light mixed with that of heat, or of 
temperatures which are continually varying. My aim has been 
to eliminate all these complications; and if I have been antici- 
pated by a judicious observer, M. F. Burckhardt {, in some ex- 
periments which the perusal of my ‘ Botanical Geography’ ap- 
pears to have suggested to him, it will be seen that my experi- 
ments bear out his, that they apply to a larger number of spe- 
cies submitted to more normal conditions, and that they con- 
sequently lead to more extended and more certain conclusions. 
* Memoir read at the General Meeting of the Swiss Society of Natural 
Sciences at Geneva, on August 21, 1865. Translated from the ‘ Biblioth. 
Univ. de Geneve,’ 1865, p. 243. 
+ “Tables of the duration of the Germination of 863 Species observed 
in the Botanic Garden of Geneva,” by Alph. de Candolle (im the ‘ Physio- 
logie Végét.’ of Aug.-Pyr. de Candolle, vol. ii. pp. 640 & 646). 
+ On the Determination of the Zero of Vegetation (Verhandl. d. Natur- 
forsch. Gesellsch. Basel, 1858, vol. ii. 1. pp. 47-62. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xvii. 16 
