74 Germination of Seeds. 



I now come to that part of the subject where, from the expla- 

 nations ah-eady given, I hope it will be in ray power to explain the 

 reasons why I was induced to try the experiments I set out with 

 taking notice of, and which I hope will be found, on proper trial, 

 to be very beneficial. It is to seeds damaged by being too long 

 kept in a dry state, or hurt by too much fire heat, or heat of the 

 sun, that my attention has been principally directed. It has been 

 often recommended to apply substances readily yielding oxygen ; 

 and I have myself tried oxalic acid frequently, but without any 

 perceptible effect; and, from experiments lately instituted, it ap- 

 pears thatimore than the quantity of oxygen, or about one third, 

 contained in common air, is not beneficial, though this propor- 

 tion is absolutely necessary. 



From experiments lately made by Mr. Charles Maltuen, and 

 narrated in Brexvsfer's Journal of Science^ he found that the nega- 

 tive or alkaline pole of a battery caused seeds to vegetate in much 

 less time than the positive; and he was. thence induced to expe- 

 riment on seeds in glasses filled with acetic, nitric, and sulphuric 

 acids, and also in water rendered alkaline by potash and am- 

 monia. In the alkaline the seeds vegetated in 30 hours, and 

 were well developed in 40 ; while in the nitric and sulphuric they 

 took 7 days ; and even after a month they had not begun to 

 grow in the acetic acid. The great benefit of the alkalies in 

 hastening the germinating process being thus so apparent, I was 

 induced to experiment on lime; a very easily procured alkali, 

 and which I reckoned to be more efficient than any other, from 

 the well-known affinity of quick, or newly slacked, lime for car- 

 bonic acid. Lime, as taken from the quarry, consists of carbon- 

 ate of lime, or lime united to carbonic acid; and, in the act of 

 burning, the carbonic acid is driven off; and hence the great 

 affinity of newly slacked lime for carbonic acid. I depended, 

 therefore, on this affinity to extract the carbon from the starch, 

 assisted by moisture ; in the aid of the heat disengaged in this 

 process, and also in the above well-attested effects of alkaline 

 substances in hastening the process of vegetation ; and, in the 

 spring of 1835, having a quantity of old spruce fir seed, I was 

 determined to try the experiment. It is well known by nursery- 

 men, that the seed of the spruce fir will scarcely vegetate the 

 third year, although kept in the cones ; but, in the present in- 

 stance, the seed had been out of the cones during all that time; 

 and the year before, or second year of the seed, had been so 

 weak, that, although well damped, and sown a great deal thicker 

 than usual, in a favourable state of the weather, and in ground in 

 good condition, still it came through very thin yellow in the 

 cqlour, so weak as scarcely to be able to free its cotyledons from 

 the ground, and not producing one third of a crop. Thus, under 

 ordinary circumstances, after keeping the same seed a year longer, 



