SEED CHARACTERISTICS IN CONIFEROUS FORESTS 



19 



parts of water by weight, to one part of zinc chloride to forty parts of 

 water, all showed no influence on the germination. Zinc chloride has 

 been found to be a stimulant to germination in the work done in soil treat- 

 ment for fungi, and was expected to be a stimulant in germinating the 

 white pine seed, but such did not prove to be the case. 



Ether. Seven treatments of ether, varying from dipping to exposing 

 the seed to the ether fumes for four hours, showed that the seeds were killed 

 if left in the fumes for more than one hour. Liquid ether was put into a 

 bottle and the seed suspended above it on a gauze, thus subjecting the seed 

 to the ether fumes. The bottle was closed with an air-tight glass stopper. 



Seed soaked in water. Seed was put into water at the following tem- 

 perature in degrees Fahrenheit and left for forty hours: 100, 110, 120, 

 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, 200, 212. The temperature of the water 

 was 65 to 70 F. when the seed was taken out. No germination was 

 obtained above 150 F., but the seed soaked in 140 germinated 10 per 

 cent as compared with 4 per cent in the unsoaked seed, showing that this 

 temperature had stimulated germination. 



Sulphuric acid. The following table shows the results of treatments 

 of western white pine seed with sulphuric acid. 



TABLE V 



A = Commercial sulphuric acid. 



F-A-5=Seed soaked in acid, full strength, for 5 minutes, etc. 



H-A = One-half strength acid, that is, equal parts with water. 



