214 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



a quart bottle in a tank filled with snow and water, to ascertain whether the seeds kept at the 

 temperature of 32 would better resist the salt water ; this water became turbid and smelt 

 offensively. In the following list, where the cases are specified, the seeds have endured their 

 full time : 



" (1) Seeds of common cress (Lepidium sativum) have germinated well after forty-two days' 

 immersion ; they give out a surprising quantity of slime, so as to cohere in a mass. (2) Ra- 

 dishes have not germinated as well after the same period. (3) Cabbage-seed :*: after fourteen 

 days' immersion only one seed out of many came up ; this is rather strange, as the cabbage is 

 a sea-side plant ; in the ice-cold salt water, however, several came up after thirty days' im- 

 mersion. (4) Lettuce-seed grew well after forty-two days ; (5) Onion-seed : but few germi- 

 nated after the same period ; (6) Carrot and (7) Celery-seed grew well after the forty-two 

 days; (8) Borago cfficinalis, (9) Capsicum, (10) and Cucurbita ovifera, germinate well after 

 twenty-eight days' immersion ; the last two, rather tender kinds, were also tried in ice-cold 

 water, and germinated after thirty days' immersion. (11) Savory, or Satureja, did not grow as 

 well after twenty-eight days. (12) Linum usitatissimum : only one seed out of a mass of seeds 

 (which gave out much slime) came up after the twenty-eight days, and the same thing hap- 

 pened after fourteen days ; and only three seeds came up after the first seven days' immer- 

 sion, yet the seed was very good. (13) Rhubarb, (14) Beet, (15) Orach, or Atriplex, (16) Oats, 

 (17) Barley, (18) and Phalaris Canariensis, all germinate well after twenty-eight days ; like- 

 wise the last-named six, after thirty days in ice-cold water. (19) Beans, and (20) Furze, or 

 Ulex: of these a few survived with difficulty fourteen days ; the beans were all killed by the 

 ice-cold water in thirty days. (21) Peas germinated after seven days, but died after fourteen 

 days' immersion out of doors, and likewise after thirty days in the ice-cold water. (22) Tri- 

 folium incarnatum is the only plant of which every seed has been killed by seven days' immer- 

 sion ; nor did it withstand thirty days in ice-cold salt water. (23) Kidney-beans have been 

 tried only in the latter water, and all were dead after thirty days. 



"As out of these twenty-three kinds of seed, the five Leguminosce alone have as yet been 

 killed, (except the cabbage-seed, and these have survived in the ice-cold water,) one is tempted 

 to infer that the seeds of this family must generally withstand salt water much worse than 

 the seeds of the other great natural families ; yet, from remarks in botanical works, I had 

 expected that these would have survived longest. It has been curious to observe how uniform, 

 even to a day, the germination has been in almost every kind of seed, when taken week after 

 week out of the salt water, and likewise when compared with the same seeds not salted all, 

 of course, having been grown under the same circumstances. The germination of the rhubarb 

 and celery alone has been in a marked degree altered, having been accelerated. 



"To return to the subject of transportal: it is stated in 'Johnston's Physical Atlas' that 

 the rates of ten distinct currents in the Atlantic (excluding drift currents) are given, and 

 their average is thirty-three nautical miles per diem ; hence in forty-two days, which length 

 of immersion seven out of the eight kinds of seed as yet tested have already stood, a seed 

 might be readily carried between thirteen hundred and fourteen hundred miles. 



" I will conclude by observing that all the forty to fifty seeds which I have tried sink in sea 

 water : this seems at first a fatal obstacle to the dissemination of plants by sea currents ; but 

 it may be doubted whether most seeds, (with the exception of the winged kinds,) when once 

 shed, are so likely to get washed into the sea as are whole or nearly whole plants with their 

 fruit, by being carried down rivers during floods, by water-spouts, whirlwinds, &c. It should 

 be borne in mind how beautifully pods, capsules, &c., and even the fully-expanded heads of 

 the Composites, close when wetted, as if for the very purpose of carrying the seed safe to land. 

 When landed high up by the tides and waves, and perhaps driven a little inland by the first 

 inshore gale, the pods, &c. will dry, and opening will shed their seed ; and these will then be 

 ready for all the many means of disposal by which Nature sows her broad fields, and which 

 have excited the admiration of every observer. But when the seed is sown in its new home, 

 then comes the ordeal ; will the old occupants in the great struggle for life allow the new and 

 solitary immigrant room and sustenance ?" Silliman's Journal. 



