KFKKCT OK CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 



15 



college buildings. This door opens into a hall which communicates 

 with the offices, chemical laboratory, and the basement. At Ann 

 Arbor the seeds were stored in the botanical laboratory, with slightly 

 varying conditions, they being near a window which was frequently 

 open during the summer, and at irregular intervals during the early 

 part of the summer the packages were placed in the window so as to 

 receive the direct rays of the sun. The seeds stored at Ann Arbor 

 served partially as controls for those sent to the various other places, 

 and, in addition to the last-named series, seeds from the original 

 packages, as received from D. M. Ferry & Co., were kept in a dry 

 and comparatively cool closet on the fourth floor of the botanical lab- 

 orator} 7 . These seeds served as checks for the complete set of exper- 

 iments, and are designated throughout this paper as u Control." 



The samples were sent out to the above-named places in February, 

 1900. The first complete set was returned in June, or early July, of 

 that year. The second complete set was allowed to remain throughout 

 the entire summer, and was returned in October and earl} 7 November 

 of the same year. The average time of treatment for the two series 

 of experiments was 128 and 251 days respectively. When the seeds 

 were returned, germination tests were made as soon as possible. The 

 length of time that the seeds were in the various places and the vitality 

 as shown by the germination tests are given in Tables I and II. In 

 both tables the columns from left to right, beginning with Mobile, 

 Ala., are in the order of the degree to which the seeds were injured. 



TABLE I. Effect of climate on vitality, as shown by percentage of germination -first test. 



From Table I it will be seen that the loss of vitality in the case of 

 seeds stored at Mobile was much greater than in those stored at any 

 of the other places. The greatest loss in the samples tested was in the 



