110 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 



Three circumstances are necessary in order to fit a seed to ger- 

 minate, viz : heat, moisture and air. If either of these are want- 

 ing, the process of vegetation will not go on. No seed will ger- 

 minate at a temperature below the freezing point of water, and as 

 a general thing not less than ten degrees above that point. About 

 forty degrees of Farenheit's thermometer is the lowest, and above 

 that to eighty degrees — the temperature varying according to the 

 character of the seed, whether it be of a plant belonging naturally 

 in the hot, warm, or cold regions of the earth. Some seeds will 

 bear a greater degree of cold than others, without losing their 

 now^er of germinating. The severest cold of our winters leaves 

 them uninjured, whilst others perish. 



Moisture is also necessary. Not a great quantity of w^et, but 

 so much as the earth will naturally hold. Too much w^ater is 

 injuriovis ; the effect of it may be seen, if any one w^ill put a pint 

 of peas in a bowl and fill it to the top of the peas with w'ater ; 

 after they have been left two or three days, those on the top w^ill 

 be found to have sprouted, w^hilst the low^er ones are only swelled, 

 and in a few days these latter will be found to have rotted without 

 having begun to grow. With many seeds the process of germi- 

 nation is materially hastened by soaking in water or the solution 

 of some salt. Boiling water may in some cases be used, and there 

 are seeds which will not lose their powder of growing even by 

 being iToiled for one or two minutes. A better plan than to im- 

 merse them in water, when the quantity is not large, is to wrap 

 them in a w^et cloth and place it in a damp and dark place till 

 germination commences. Soaking in soot water, tar water, and 

 in solutions of salts, has been supposed to prevent rust and other 

 diseases to which grain is subject, and also to prevent the depre- 

 dations of insects. This, we apprehend, is not the case. The 

 only benefit we can recognise as arising from it is a rapid growth, 

 produced by the stimulating and nourishing properties of the sub- 

 stances used, which enables the plant to reach a size too great to 

 be injured before the insects are produced. We know of no w^ell 



