April 4, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



135 



Cultural Department. 



Patience with Germinating Seeds. 



EVERY seedsman is familiar with the complaint of "bad 

 seeds " which comes from customers every season, and 

 almost every seed-sower at some time has annoyance with 

 seeds which refuse, or seem to refuse, to grow. The fault 

 does not always lie with either one party or the other. It is 

 true that seedsmen are not always as careful about the vitality 

 of their seeds as they should be, but, on the whole, first-class 

 firms are to be trusted. The temptation to keep unsold seeds 

 for sale year after year is great, and these are too often mixed 

 with the fresher seed. Country general stores are especially 

 likely to keep their seeds over, just as nails or thread would 

 be kept, and many seeds lose their vitality "by long keeping. 

 But the fault is not always with the seller, for the fact that the 

 seeds are a little old and dry in some cases means that they 



Many seeds require proper cleaning from fruity coverings 

 before they will germinate well and give satisfaction, and, as 

 is well known, exposure to the action of frost and moisture or 

 soaking in warm water will often hasten seeds in starting into 

 growth. With regard to the Symplocos, it may be assumed that 

 not one per cent, of the large quantities of seeds sent from 

 the Arboretum during a number of years, have been known 

 to germinate, and in most cases they have been discarded as 

 worthless after the first season's trial. 



Certain kinds of Maple-seeds will grow the following spring 

 if planted soon after they are ripe, but if allowed to dry, which 

 is generally found expedient when they are to be shipped long 

 distances, they are not likely to germinate until the second 

 year. As our Red and White Maples ripen their fruits in May 

 or June these seeds will produce nice little plants before 

 autumn, if sown in moist soil as soon as mature. This is also 

 true of the Elms and of the Red Birch (Betula nigra), which 

 ripens its fruit in June. The seeds of most Ashes (Fraxinus) 



Fig. 25. — Primus Watsoni. — See page 134. 



will simply take a little longer to germinate than they would if 

 sown while fresh. Then there are some kinds of seeds, nota- 

 bly those of certain kinds of trees and shrubs, which naturally 

 remain dormant for a season before they germinate, and then 

 the seedlings may continue to appear during several months. 

 It is this tardy germination which has often caused planters to 

 destroy valuable sowings with the idea that the seeds were 

 worthless. 



A valued correspondent in Germany, who shows great en- 

 thusiasm in the cultivation of hardy plants, has written that he 

 has made many attempts to raise the Symplocos cratcegoides 

 from seed received both from Japan and from the Arnold 

 Arboretum, and always failed to get any seedlings. Finally 

 he gave the seeds a longer chance, and at last is rewarded, and 

 writes, "Seed planted in a box December 5th, 1891, first began 

 to send up little seedlings in October, 1893. Both winters the 

 box has been outside covered with snow, and now I have 

 placed the box in warm quarters, where young plants spring 

 up every now and then." 



will take a good while to germinate if allowed to become un- 

 necessarily dry. It is usually the second year before the little 

 seedling plants of the Tulip-tree appear "from the artificially 

 sown seeds, or, technically, fruits ; but, as usually about nine- 

 tenths of these latter contain no true or fully developed seeds, 

 onlya small proportion of the sowing can be expected to re- 

 sult in plants. 



Very often the same lot of seeds will be found to germinate 

 unevenly, new plants appearing during a period of many 

 months and with an interval of a winter Between. This pecu- 

 liarity is often seen in sowings of Apple-seed which had been 

 allowed to dry a good deal before planting. Hard-shelled 

 seeds of Leguminous trees, like Kentucky Coffee-tree and 

 Honey Locust, may be expected to rest a good while in the 

 soil before they start into growth, unless they have previously 

 received special treatment. Those seeds which are surrounded 

 by a hard bony covering may. commonly be expected to grow 

 in the second rather than in the first year, especially if 

 the seed is not planted until spring. Among these are Haw- 



