520 General Notices. 



preparation ; in so far, at least, as reifards this substance. By the assistance 

 of heat, soda, and yeast (which contains diastase), the flour is prepared into a 

 loaf, which is more easily made available as food in the stomach than would 

 be the grain itself ; so, by adding alkalies to assist in the action of the natural 

 diastase formed by the plant itself from the nitrogen of the seed, or by adding 

 yeast where this is deficient, or other substances containing nitrogen to allow 

 the formation of diastase, and by increasing heat in the soil, we assist and 

 increase the efforts of nature, and a greater produce is the result. Some seeds 

 are the better for being exposed even to a boiling heat, as the acacias of 

 tropical countries, in which the starch is very much concentrated, and difficult 

 to reduce. It has also been ascertained that electricity is connected with all 

 transformations or changes of organic substances, either as cause or effect : 

 when electricity is present, it accelerates or causes chemical decomposition ; 

 and when chemical decomposition takes place, electricity is developed always 

 (says Dr. Carpenter), though, perhaps, in most instances, absorbed again by the 

 new state of the compound. M. Maltuen, in experiments made some years 

 ago with seeds, found that they germinated much sooner at the negative or 

 alkaline pole of a galvanic battery than at the positive or acid pole ; and, fol- 

 lowing up these discoveries by enclosing seeds in phials of alkalies and acids, 

 he found they germinated quickly in the former, and with difficulty, sometimes 

 not at all, in the latter. Connected with the same subject are the recent ex- 

 periments of Dr. Horner, on the differently coloured rays of the spectrum ; 

 the violet or deoxidising end produces a chemical effect, similar to the nega- 

 tive or alkaline pole, and the red end produces the opposite or acid effect, by 

 the retention of the oxygen. Guided by these theoretical opinions, I was in- 

 duced to try their effects on some very old spruce fir seed in 1836, which had 

 been three years out of the cone; the year before, 1835, some of the same seed 

 did not produce one sixth part of a crop, and I had good reason to suppose it 

 would be worse the next. The year before, when the seed was damped to 

 accelerate germination, it had a musty fungous smell; and the seed leaves came 

 up yellow, and, hanging by the ends in the ground, had not strength to free 

 themselves from the soil. In 1836, however, after being damped, I added 

 quicklime in the state of powder, which, besides furnishing an alkali, has a 

 great affinity for carbonic acid, which is necessary to be extracted from the 

 starch before it can be made soluble, and which produces heat by concentration 

 of the oxygen and carbon when being extracted. After the seed was thoroughly 

 damped, I sprinkled it with the powder of lime, and kept it damp, by the 

 use of a watering-pan, for ten or twelve days ; at the end of which time it had 

 swelled off plump, and had all the sweet smell of the sugar formed in healthy 

 seed when malted in this way : and, when deposited in the ground, it was not 

 long in pushing through its seed leaves, as healthy, upright, and dark green in 

 the colour as the first year it was sown ; and, like the mangold-wurzel plants 

 of your correspondent, the seedling spruce was strong and healthy. I drew up 

 an account of this experiment for the Gardener'' s Magazine, which was inserted 

 in the spring of 1838, and to which I would refer those wishing for further 

 particulars. Enough, I hope, has been stated to point out the theoretical 

 principles on which the benefits of lime proceed. The reasons why I preferred 

 lime were, its cheapness, and the affinity of quicklime for carbonic acid : as 

 to its alkaline properties, soda is much more powerful, but lime seemed to be 

 that which had produced most effect in the experiments of M. Payen and 

 others on the same subject. The seed must be carefully kept damp till sown, 

 as the dry powder is apt to corrode; and seeds do not suit well to have their 

 dormant powers brought into action without being sustained, which, if far 

 forward and severely checked, may destroy life altogether. Since I experi- 

 mented as above on the spruce fir seed, I have not had any other seed so 

 long kept to make trial of; I have, however, tried it on magnolias and other 

 weak-growing seeds difficult to start, and found them to germinate sooner, and 

 make stronger plants than usual. Some others who have tried it have also 

 found it of benefit. It is to seeds containing their albumen principally in the 



