March 13, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



105 



one is noteworthy for its curious stem and the pecuhar 

 arrang-ement of its ftovvers. The plant grows readily from 

 seed, and has a gouty stem, about a foot and a half high. 

 The goutiness appears at the top, the stem being crudely 

 described as like an inverted ten-pin. The smooth leaves 

 are five-lobed, four or five inches across, and usually dis- 

 appear late in the year. The flowers are borne from the 

 top of the stem on short peduncles, and are small bright 

 coral red, and in racemes irregularly arranged, so that the 

 effect is of a bunch of coral. Well-established plants 

 flower frequently, whether the plant is leafless or other- 

 wise. 



Cultural Department. 



Germination of Black Walnuts and Acorns. 



TV/r R.JACK'S articles in Garden AND Forest (vii., 13; ; viii.,6) 

 ^^^ on " Patience, with Germinating Seeds," and "Germinat- 

 ing Nuts and Acorns," recall an interesting observation lately 

 made on the retention of vitality in black walnuts. So far as I 

 know, the behaviorof this seed appears to be quite phenomenal. 



under the direction of the Division of Forestry, the nuts hav- 

 ing been kept during the preceding winter spread out in a thin 

 layer on the ground, with a light cover of diSbris. The soil 

 was a slightly loamy sand, and when planted the nuts were cov- 

 ered to a depth of trom two to four inches. Within ninety days 

 after the planting, a large percentage of the nuts germinated 

 and the plants made a vigorous season's growth. One year 

 from the planting (March, 1894), in taking up the seedlings, 

 eighteen to twenty nuts were found, in different rows of the 

 plantation, in various stages of germination, the radicles being 

 from one-quarter to three inches in length, all in a perfectly 

 vigorous state. When found, the nuts were covered to a depth 

 of trom two to three inches. 



Professor W. J. Beal has recorded ■■• some oljservations 

 which are interesting in this connection. In addition to a 

 number of weed seeds, deeply buried in sand for ten years and 

 then uncovered in order to test their vitality, he mentions the 

 burying also of black walnuts and Black Oak acorns at depths 

 varying from a " few inches " to three feet. Some of the nuts 

 and acorns within a few inches from the surface of the ground 

 germinated the first season ; all the acorns at a depth of eight 

 inches to two feet were decayed ; a few acorns at a depth of 

 two to three feet were found to have germinated, and the 

 aborted plantlets were still alive at the end of nearly four years. 



Fig. 17. — View in the forest on the bottom-lands of Whii 



-See 



As a rule, the mature fresh nuts of the Hickories and Walnuts 

 planted in the fall, or, after proper care during the winter, 

 planted in the spring, germinate during the first season, not 

 "lying over" and germinating the second, as is sometimes 

 observed with other less butky forest-tree seeds (Robinia, 

 Gleditsia, Gymnocladus, Acacia, Fraxinus, etc.) 



In March, 1893, ten bushels of black walnuts were planted 



But all of the black walnuts buried from eight inches to three 

 feet deep were decayed, there being no inilication of germina- 

 tion as in case of the acorns. 



The greater ability of acorns to preserve their vitality for a 

 limited time in a quiescent or germinated state when deeply 



* Prec. Sol: Fro,::. 4j. Sc:., iSS<). i.. .5. 



