Germination of Forest Trees 7 



Briefly stated the purpose of the present investigation is to 

 inquire into the effect of the more important habitat and seed 

 factors upon the germination and early development of certain 

 American forest trees in control cultures in the greenhouse for the 

 purpose of obtaining data that may be used in the silvicultural 

 management of these species. 



This investigation has been conducted under the direction of 

 Professor Raymond J. Pool and I am indebted to him for his 

 friendly advice and counsel. I am especially grateful to him for 

 having read the first draft of this paper and for offering valuable 

 criticisms and suggestions. I wish to further acknowledge my 

 indebtedness to Professors P. B. Barker and H. J. Young of the 

 department of agronomy of the College of Agriculture for the 

 mechanical analyses of the soils used in these experiments and to 

 various members of the departments of botany and geology for the 

 many courtesies extended to me. Thanks are due to the various 

 district foresters, forest supervisors, and rangers, also members 

 of the Washington office of the Forest Service for their kindness 

 in furnishing so much of the seed used in these investigations. 

 Without this material assistance a large part of this work would 

 have been impossible. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to 

 my wife for much valuable assistance in counting seeds, in com- 

 piling the final data and in reading proof. Also, I cannot fail 

 to acknowledge the guidance and inspiration of the late Dr. 

 Charles E. Bessey throughout the course of these studies. 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 



Historical 



The literature of the work done upon this problem is meager 

 and widely scattered. As has been noted before, both botanists 

 and foresters have worked in this field, so that papers from 

 widely different sources had to be considered. General observa- 

 tions were found to be much more numerous than results based 

 upon exact investigations. Too often one finds opinions and 

 views upon these questions with but very little data to substantiate 



