13 



are certainly at one in believing that knowledge of the ways and 

 means of bringing difficult seeds to germination is still in its infancy. 

 CAUCASIAN SILVER FIR ABIES NORDMANNIANA. To 

 cause this species to germinate is much more difficult. If we exa- 

 mine the results of the last ten years, it almost looks as if the 

 difficulty of the experiment was an increasing one; this is, how- 

 ever, only apparently the case. The first three germination experi- 

 ments were carried out in Chrisstiansstad in Sweden, where a seed 

 was considered as germinated as soon as the husk was split and 

 the young shoot visible and fresh; in the "Dansk Frokontrol" here 

 in Copenhagen it is required that the shoot should actually pro- 

 trude. 



Germination in per cent after 10 20 30 60 100 days 



190203 1 25 39 



190304 10 40 50 



190405 50 



190506 2 11 (+ 16) 



190708 001 49 (+ 8) 



190809 002 26 (+ 15) 



190910 002 56 (+ 5) 



191011 001 29 (+ 1) 



Experience shows that the seed of the Caucasian Silver Fir 

 germinates much more slowly in nurseries than does that of the 

 common Silver Fir, and the results of germination tests point either 

 to autumn or very early spring sowing, or what may be still 

 better submitting the seed to a careful soaking and pre-germina- 

 tion before sowing. 



This seed, indeed, seldom shows its true utilization value through 

 an artificial germination test. 



The best consignment of this species I ever had, was that of 

 the season 190910, which showed by a cut test 7075 % o f g od 

 seeds and gave in the nurseries of the Danes Buch & Hermansen in 

 Halstenbek in Holstein fully 20,000 plants per bed 12 m long and 

 1.10 m broad. (Nearly all seed beds in Halstenbek have these di- 

 mensions.) Yet the artificial germination test gave, after 100 days, 

 only 56 % germinated, plus 5 % sound, but not yet germinated, seeds. 

 As a rule, the Caucasian Silver Fir gives fully 10,000 plants per 

 bed, which is the normal crop. 



