32 PKINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. I. 



course of experiments upon this subject ; and they 

 fully confii'm my opinion, that salts, innoxious when 

 the plant is of robust and advanced growth, are fatal 

 to it at the time of germination; for he found that seeds 

 germinate without injury in carbonate of lime, (chalk), 

 carbonate of strontian, litharge, red oxide of lead, 

 phosphate of lead, black oxide of manganese, calo- 

 mel, and cinnabar. That they germinate feebly in 

 carbonate of magnesia, copper filings, sulphuret of 

 antimony, red oxide of mercury, and aqueous solution 

 of iodine. Lastly, that they refused to germinate at 

 all in carbonate of barytes, hydrate of barytes, iodine 

 pulverised and moistened, kermes mineral, golden 

 sulphur of antimony, oxide of bismuth, arseniate of 

 lead, and green oxide of chromium ^. These are facts 

 which explain the result of practice, that saline ma- 

 nures are generally injurious if applied with the seed, 

 though they may be beneficial if applied long before 

 the seed time, or subsequently, when the plants are 

 of advanced gro\vth. 



Nothing is so injurious to a germinating seed as 

 ^dcissitudes of temperature and moisture, or a length- 

 ened exposure to excess of the latter ; in either case, 

 the awakening vitality is frequently entirely extin- 

 guished. Nothing is more dreaded by the maltster 

 than a sudden check to his germinating barley ; and, 

 as a chill to the incubatmg egg effectually prevents the 



^ Joum. de Pharmacie. xvi. 406. 



