EXPERIMENTS IN KEEPING AND SHIPPING. 67 



days. At the end of that time (March 14-) the seeds wore tested for 

 germination, as were also those from the unprotected envelopes in 

 the moist chamber. The seeds that were kept under water in the 

 paraffined packages germinated readily and normally, showing no 

 deterioration in vitality ; but the seeds from the packages not paraffined, 

 which were kept in the moist chamber, had been injured to an appre- 

 ciable extent, there being a marked retardation in the germination of 

 all of the species of seed. The cabbage at the end of thirty -six hours 

 had germinated only 11 per cent, as compared Avith 57.5 per cent for 

 seed from the immersed paraffined package. The relative merits of 

 the two conditions as affecting onion seed may be expressed by a 

 germination of 13.5 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively, after sixty- 

 one and one-half hours. Not only was there a marked retardation, 

 but likewise a reduction in the final percentage of germination, with 

 the single exception of the cabbage. These results can be more care- 

 fully studied in Table XXVI. 



Germination tests were made of all of the other samples on June 3, 

 1901, the date when the seeds were returned from Mobile. At this time 

 the seeds in the unprotected envelopes in the moist chamber were so 

 badly molded that no germination tests were made. The samples from 

 Mobile, which were directly comparable with the above, except that 

 they had been stored in a basement, were greatly injured. The beans 

 had deteriorated to 88 per cent, the onion to 27 per cent, the pansy to 

 8 per cent, while the phlox was dead. However, seed of the other 

 species cabbage, lettuce, and peas gave final percentages of germi- 

 nation varying but little from the control, but the slowing down in 

 the rapidity of germination was sufficiently marked to show a corre- 

 sponding loss in vitality. 



With the samples which were put up in bottles, tin cans, and 

 paraffined packages the results were quite different f rom those given 

 above. In no case was there any marked deviation beyond that which 

 might be justly attributed to ordinary variation, except in the phlox 

 from a tin can which had been stored in the moist chamber in the 

 laboratory. This sample of phlox germinated only 3.5 per cent. 

 Unfortunately, both the pansy and the phlox seeds used for these 

 experiments were not very satisfactory. These samples were at this 

 time nearly two years old and consequently of a low vitality. The 

 tabulated results of the foregoing experiment follow. 



