THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



679 



precauiions become necessary, to which, under 

 other circumstances, no attention recjuires to be 

 paid. 



When the vital ener»jips of a seed are dimi- 

 nished, it does not lose iis power ofabsorbiiig wa- 

 ter, but it is less capable of decomposing it. The 

 consequence of this is, that the liee water intro- 

 duced into the eysteni collects in the cavities of 



even to the boilint; point of Fahrenheit's scale, 

 poured over them, leaving them to sleep and the 

 water to cool /()r tweniy-(bur hours." Subee- 

 (juently, the practice has been adopted by other 

 persons with perlect success ; and, some years 

 ago, seedlings oC Acacia lopliantha were exhibit- 

 ed belbre the llorticuliural Society by the late 

 IMr. Thomas Cary Palmer, which had sprung 



the seed, and produces pulreliiciion ; the sign ofj (iom seeds boiled for as much aa five minut 

 which is the rolling of seeds in the ground. 1 am also acquainted with other cases, one of the 

 The retuedy tor this is to present water to the seed ! n)ore remarkable of which was the germination 

 in such small quantities at a time, and so gradual- of the seeds of the raspberry, picked from a jar 

 Jy, that no more is absorbed than the languid ! of jam, and which must therefore have been ex- 

 powers of the seed can assimilate; and to in- 1 posed to the temperature of 230'^, the boiling 

 crease the (luantity only as the dormant powers point of syrup. It is difficult to understand in 

 of vegetation are aroused. One of the best means what way so violent an action can be beneficial 

 of doing this is, to sow seeds in warm soil tolera- to any thing possessing viiahty ; the fact, how- 

 bly dry ; to trust lor some time to the moisture \ ever, is certain. As such instances of success 

 that exists in such earth, and in the atmosphere j are confined to seeds with hard shells, it is possi- 



fbr the supply required tor germination ; and only 

 to administer water when the signs of germina- 

 tion have become visible ; even then the supply 

 should be extremely small. Jf this is attended 

 to, carbonic acid is very slowly formed and liberat- 

 ed, the chemical quality of the contents of the 

 seed is thus insensibly altered, each act of respira- 

 tion may be said to invigorate it, and by degrees 

 it will be brought to a condition favorable to the 

 assimilation of food in larger quantities. Mr. 

 Knight used to say that these effects were pro- 

 duced in no way so well as by enclosing seeds 

 between two pieces of loamy turf, cut smooth 

 and applied to each other by the underground 

 sides ; such a method is, however, scarcely ap- 

 plicable to any except seeds of considerable size.* 



Other expedients have occasionally been had 

 recourse to successfully. Where seeds are enclos- 

 ed in a very hard dry shell, it is usually necessary 

 to file it thin, so as to permit the embryo to burst 

 through its integuments when it has begun to 

 swell. Under natural circumstances, indeed, no 

 such operation is practised : but it is to be remem- 

 bered that such seeds will have fallen to the 

 ground as soon as ripe, and before their shell 

 acquired the bony hardness 4hat we find after 

 having become dry. 



Sometimes it has been found useful to immerse 

 seeds in tepid water until signs of germination 

 manifest themselves, and then to transfer them to 

 earth : but this process cannot be applied with 

 advantage to seeds in an unhealthy stale ; and it 

 is only of use to healthy seeds, by accelerating the 

 time of growth, a practice which may, in out- 

 door crops, be sometimes desirable, when applied 

 to seeds which, like the beet, the carrot, or the 

 parsnip, will in dry seasons, lie so loniy in the 

 ground without germinating, that they become a 

 prey to birds or other animals. 



Of late years, the sinijular practice has been 

 introduced of boiling seeds, to promote germina- 

 tion. This was, I believe, first recommended by 

 Mr. Bowie, whostateci, in the Gardeners Maga- 

 zine, vol. viii. p. 5, (18.32,) that " he found the 

 seeds of nearly all leguminous plants germinate 

 more readily by having water heated to 200*^, or 



• [The sowing of very small and delicate seeds in 

 the open air should be deferred until the season is so 

 far advanced, that all probable danger from cold wea- 

 ther is past. In case of drought they may be shaded 

 during sunshine, and watered with a tiiie-nosed wa- 

 tering-pot in the evening. A. J, D.] 



hie that the heated fluid may act in part mecha- 

 nically by cracking the shell, in part as a solvent 

 of the matters enclosed in the seed, and in part 

 as a stimulant. 



Mr. Lymburn, nurseryman at Kilmarnock, 

 has lately called attention to the effect produced 

 upon germinating seeds by alkaline substances. 

 He states that experiments made by Mr. Charles 

 Maltuen, and narrated in Brewster's Journal of 

 Science, having shown that the negative or al- 

 kaline pole of a galvanic battery caused seeds 

 to germinate in much less time than the positive, 

 or acid pole, he was induced to observe the effects 

 on seeds of acetic, nitric, and sulphuric acids, and 

 also of water rendered alkaline by potash and 

 ammonia. " In the alkaline, the seeds vegetated 

 in thirty hours, and were well developed in forty; 

 while in the acetic and sulphuric they took seven 

 days; and, even after a month, they had not 

 begun to grow in the acetic." This experiment 

 led to others upon lime ; " a very easily procured 

 alkali, and which he inferred to be more efficient 

 than any other from the well-known affinity of 

 quick or newly slacked lime for carbonic acid. 

 Lime, as taken from the quarry, consists of car- 

 bonate of lime, or lime united to carbonic acid ; 

 but in the act of burning, the carbonic acid isdriven 

 off; and hence the great affinity of newly slacked 

 lime lor carbonic acid. 



He depended, therefore, upon this affinity, to ex- 

 tract the carbon from the starch, assisted by 

 moisture," ( Gard. Mag., xiv. 74); and it if? 

 stated that the results were exceedingly striking, 

 OJd spruce fir seed, which would scarcely ger- 

 minate at two years old, produced a fine healthy 

 crop when three years old, having been first damp- 

 ed and then mixed with newly slacked lime ; 

 and under the same treatment, an average crop of 

 healthy plants was obtained when the seed was 

 four years old. Unfortunately, the manner in 

 which the original experiments upon acids and 

 alkalies were conducted is not explained, (it is to 

 be presumed that the water employed was only 

 acidulated with the acids spoken of,) and I am 

 not aware of the experiments having been repeat- 

 ed. The last method of promoting germination, 

 to which it is necessary to advert, is the mixing 

 seeds with agents that have the power of liberat- 

 ing oxygen. It has been shown that a seed can- 

 not germinate until the carbon with which it is 

 loaded is to a considerable extent removed ; the 

 removal of this principle is effected by converting 



