CHAPTER II 



THE THREE CONDITIONS OF THE SEED 



We are all familiar with the three conditions presented by the 

 large, soft pre-resting seed, the contracted, hard resting seed, 

 and the soft, swollen seed on the eve of germination. Yet 

 to each of them we are apt to apply an epithet which is never 

 altogether true and rarely altogether wrong. Thus we often 

 speak of the pre-resting seed as immature, of the resting seed 

 as mature, and of the swelling seed as germinating. In these 

 connections it is necessary to remember that, as a rule, the 

 embryo is fully developed in the soft, swollen pre-resting 

 seed, and is quite ready, as shown in a later page, to proceed 

 with germination, should the shrinking process be averted. 

 If, then, the embryo is " mature " in the pre-resting seed, 

 such an epithet can have no distinctive value for the 

 resting seed. 



So again, when we speak of the germinating seed, we have 

 to decide whether we mean the swollen seed on the eve of 

 germination, or whether we refer to the seed with the tip of 

 the radicle already protruding through the coats. Botanists, 

 like Nobbe, PfefFer, Jost, and others, lay stress on the fact 

 that absorption of water by the resting seed is not actual 

 germination, but merely a preparation for that process ; 

 whilst gardeners are familiar with the circumstance that seeds 

 may swell up and not germinate. Strictly speaking, the 

 germinating condition with the radicular tip showing Is a 

 fourth stage. It is a stage of growth and activity within the 



