VOLUME LVIII 



NUMBER 2 



THE 



Botanical 



Gazette 



AUGUST 191 4 



A study of the germinating power of seeds 



Marvin L. Darsie, Charlotte Elliott, and 



George J. Peirce 



(with eighteen figures) 



Scattered throughout botanical literature are many statements 

 regarding the length of time during which seeds may retain their 

 germinating power or, as it is called, their viability. Some of these 



statements record the germination of seeds from old herbaria, others 

 of seeds supposedly long buried in the earth, and still others of seeds 

 which have been stored for known periods and under known condi- 

 tions. Few of these records, however, bear critical examination. 

 Perhaps the earliest authentic records of tests of the continued 

 vitality of air-dry seeds are those of Alphonse de Candolle. 1 In 

 1832 he first conceived the idea of testing seeds of different species 

 which he had obtained in the harvest of 183 1. He kept them all 

 air-dry until May 1846, when he planted 20 seeds of each species. 

 There were 368 species, representing 53 families. Of these but 5 

 out of 10 species of Malvaceae, 9 out of 45 species of Leguminosae, 

 and 1 out of 50 species of Labiatae showed any power of germina- 



tion. 



made 



Duvel. 2 He 



faculte 



families 



6:373. 1846. 



xpe 



Ynn. Sci. Nat. Bot. III. 



2 1 >uvel, J. W. T., The vitality of buried seeds. Bull. 83, Bur. PI. Industry, U.S. 



Dept. Agric. 1905. 



ior 



