E. R. Saunders 361 



APPENDIX 



Note 1. On the relative viability of seeds giving rise 

 TO singles and doubles 



The belief that in Stocks a larger proportiou of doubles can be 

 obtained from old seed than from seed recently harvested is one of 

 long-standing, but it appears to be rather of the nature of a tradition 

 than of an opinion founded on a knowledge of definite facts. Discussing 

 this point in his paper entitled " Beitrage zur Kenntniss gefuUte 

 Bluthen" Goebel^ refers to a treatise by F. A. H. Thiele which shows 

 that the above view was current at the beginning of the last century. 

 Thiele-, as Goebel tells us, was seeking an answer to the questions how 

 can one obtain Stock seed which will produce a high proportion of 

 doubles and how can one recognise this seed ? a propos to the former 

 inquiry he mentions among other traditions current at that time the 

 view that the older the seed the more doubles does it yield. Com- 

 menting on this statement Goebel adds that though unsupported by 

 experiment it may very well prove to be the case, and might be 

 explained on the supposition that in course of time more and more 

 seeds which would have produced singles lose their power of 

 germinating. 



Chat^, a French horticulturist, in a treatise on the cultivation of 

 Stocks, the culture of which had been carried on in his family for more 

 than 50 years, expresses himself on this point as follows : Experiment 

 has shown that seeds two years old give more doubles than seeds one 

 year old. In proportion as the seeds get old their power of doubling 

 increases, whilst the power of germinating diminishes*. Although 

 Chat^ here states that his view is based on experiment, it seems clear 

 that he did not recognise the possibility that the character of the flower 

 may already be pre-determined in the seed, and that his suggestion 

 that a seed which would have produced a double may, if kept, 

 eventually give rise to a single, is not a true explanation of the facts. 



^ Pringtheinu Jahrbuch, Band xvu. p. 285, 1886. 



* Prediger tu Pittenoitz bei Kyritz in Pommtm, Coslin, 1825. 



* Culture pratique des GiroJUes. Paris, N.D. 



