234 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
to the pint of formaldehyde. In Utah, Stewart and STEPHENS (52) 
noted vitality reductions in wheat, barley, and oats, but thought 
the advantages outweighed the injury. Mackie (37) of Cali- 
fornia noted that seed stored after treatment uniformly showed poor 
germination. Even with proper drying the tissues appeared hard- 
ened, causing retardation and distortion of the young seedlings. 
Varying degrees of injury have been reported by many different 
investigators (14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 53, 57, 58). 
On the other hand, formaldehyde has been approved in varying 
measures by different investigators, some of whom recognized the 
dangers and injury in some cases, but have felt that the advantages 
outweighed the injury. The War Emergency Board of American 
plant pathologists found little injury from formaldehyde except 
when the concentrations were higher than the usual 1 part to 320 
parts of water, or when the other common precautions in treatment 
had not been observed. This work was based on the reports of 
seventeen experiment stations, and is probably the most complete 
and uniformly secured set of data available from so large an area 
of country (35). Many other workers in America and Europe have 
reported in similar vein (6, 16, 32, 36, 38, 40, 45, 51, 55). 
Within the past two years two most interesting papers have 
appeared, in which the possibilities of avoiding injury from formalde- 
hyde treatment have been suggested. Braun (13) finds the injury 
apparently much diminished by not treating the grain until imbibed 
with water. It is believed that exterior disinfection is thus at- 
tained, and a much less amount of formaldehyde enters the grain 
under these conditions. Miss Hurp (33) believes that when seeds 
are treated in formaldehyde and subsequently allowed to dry, the 
polymer paraformaldehyde is deposited on the seed coat with serious 
eventual injury. Here, instead of the “pre-soak,” we have the 
recommendation of washing in water subsequent to treatment to 
avoid the harmful paraformaldehyde deposits. With the work of 
Miss Hurp there appears to be a better explanation than formerly 
of the source of the injury of formaldehyde to seeds. Amid 4 
wide diversity of opinions as to the value of the disinfectant, 
and with differing recommendations for reduction in treatment 
injury, it seemed altogether desirable that something be learned as 
