-8- 



considered. It v/ag decided to confine attention practically 



to the germination ]-;hase. This was to be a stvdy of the 



inf licences of certain stts of environiaental conditions on 



tlie germination and early growth of "Marquis" wheat. 



Since the v/heat seed contains a considerable supply 



of salts, the general plan of the cooperation was modified 



two ways for this study. (1) The total concentration of 



every solution was fixed as equivalent to 0.1. atmosphere of 



osmotic pressure, the solutions being th\is one-tenth as 



concentrated as those considered in the "Plan." (2) llo 



this element 

 iron v/as used, on the sipposition that if / was needed for 



germination, the seeds contained svif fie lent amotints of It 



to suffice for the germination phase of growth. 



On account of the fact that the gennination phase, 



as above defined, comprises only physiological processes 



that go on satisfactorily in the absence of li^t, it v;as 



possible to perform all these tests in darkness. Temperature 



control v/as thus possible, and it seemed advantageous to 



introduce the temperature factor v;ith this study in a 



quantitative way. This was done by using seven different 



maintained tempers tures in eveiy test. 



11 is study thu.s comprised the testing of the 126 

 solutions, each with seven different 

 dlf ferent/n.aintained tem-peratiur-es, giving altogether 882 



different environmental complexes. It was expected that, 



for any given temperature, some salt combination (i.e., some 



