FATE OF SEEDS INDICATED BY BALANCE 229 



however, only possible when kept in a dry room. A 

 punctured seed in nature would soon fall a victim to the 

 attacks of mould and insects, unless it germinated quickly. 



The failures amongst the impermeable seeds are, as one The failures 

 might expect, very instructive. We can trace the slow 

 progress of the loss of impermeability in seeds gathered by 



ourselves from the plant. In the course of an experiment senting per- 



i j i j 11 i meabihtyas 



covering years, a single seed in a sample gradually begins a quality by 



to fail, a change unerringly indicated in the balance by the deault 

 increase of weight. Two seeds of Entada scandens^ the 

 shrinking process of which I had watched after collecting them 

 in the immature, uncontracted state, preserved their weight 

 unchanged for a few weeks, and then began slowly to gain 

 weight, until at the end of a year each had added 3 per 

 cent, to its weight. After this they behaved hygroscopically, 

 like ordinary permeable seeds. The explanation was supplied 

 in the development of fine cracks in the cuticle. In another 

 case three seeds, also of Entada scandem^ which together 

 weighed 1080 grains, gained i grain during the first year. 

 By subsequently weighing them separately the culprit was 

 discovered, two of the seeds remaining quite unchanged in 

 weight. The cause of failure in one of the seeds lay in an 

 imperfection of the cuticle. The same thing occurred during 

 an experiment on six seeds of Guilandina bonducella weighing 

 in all about 200 grains. A gain in weight of i per cent, 

 during the first year led me to weigh them separately, and it 

 was thus discovered that this increase was due entirely to one 

 seed, which on close inspection showed defects in the outer 

 coat. 



The above experiences of faulty impermeable seeds show 

 that nature fails at times in endowing a seed with imperme- 

 ability, but the suggestive implication is that in such failures 

 permeability is presented to us as a quality by default. 



Although the indications supplied by my numerous Prof. Ewart 

 experiments seem clear and unmistakable with reference to the the imperme- 

 ultimate fate of the impermeable seed, the views held by ablese e d - 



