440 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
3 of the kinds, 50 per cent or more of the samples were below the 
government standard of germination. Of garden seeds, for 16 of 
the 26 kinds, 50 per cent or more of the samples were below stand- 
ard. Mention should be made also of work by Brown (5) on the 
germination of packeted vegetable seeds. He found that the 
average germination of box vegetable seeds put up by 60 firms for 
four years was 60.5 per cent. The lowest average for any firm 
was 36.5 per cent, the highest 81.5 per cent. The average germi- 
nation of packeted vegetable seeds put up by 20 mail-order houses 
in 1911 was 77.5 per cent (lowest average 76.2 per cent, highest 
77.5 percent). Just what these figures signify is not clear. There 
are three possibilities: (1) the seeds were poor because of the seeds- 
man’s dishonesty or carelessness; (2) the seeds were poor because 
it is not possible with present methods to produce better ones; 
if so, the government standard is, now at least, too high and methods 
of production need improvement; (3) the seeds seemed poor 
because present methods of making germination tests do not always 
adequately determine the value of a given sample. In the writer’s 
opinion, the responsibility for low test must be shared about equally 
by all three, though the first is a less important factor than it was 
a few years ago. 
6. Plants whose seeds were found infected with fungi.— 
Feather grass, asparagus, beggar weed, buckwheat, cardoon, celery, 
chives, sweet clover, dill, kaffir corn, leek, millet, oats, parsley, 
peas (12 vars.), pepper, radish, rosemary, spinach, thyme, vetch, 
Aquilegia, Asparagus Sprengeri, Bignonia, Clematis, Clianthus 
Dampieri, wild cucumber, dandelion, Datura Golden Queen, D. 
Wrightii, Helianthus, hop, Ipomoea (4 spp.), Lathyrus, lavender, 
Nasturtium, pansy, sweet peas (4 vars.), Primula, Verbena, Abies 
Mertensiana, A. pectinata, Berberis, Cupressus horizontalis, C. 
macrocarpa, C. pyramidalis, Picea excelsa, P. Menziesii, P. rubra, 
Pinus austriaca, P. Strobus. 
The species and varieties tested were 134, but 30 of these are 
omitted from the second section of table LX; 29 of these germinated 
rapidly and well, and one other, on account of bad infection with 
fungi, showed not delayed but definitely poor germination; 69, OF 
51.4 per cent of the total, were found more or less infected with 
