EFEECT OF BOILING SEED. 235 



safety. A method employed by practical men is to steep seed in water 

 of about 80° for about six bours or more, according to the character of 

 the seed, and to place the vessel where it will maintain that temperature ; 

 then to strain the water away, and to remove the vessel to a more 

 moderate temperature, say 65°, until the first signs of sprouting, when 

 the seed-bed should be instantly prepared ; the vessel, after pouring the 

 water off, should be covered with a cloth to prevent the surface seeds 

 from drying up ; it is also necessary to turn the seeds once or twice, in 

 doing which care iaust be taken that the young radicle, if it has 

 chipped the shell, be not broken off. 



Of late years the singular practice lias been introduced of 

 boiling seeds to promote germination. Tliis was, I believe, 

 first recommended by Mr. Bowie, who stated, in the Gardener'4 

 Magazine, vol. viii. p. 5. (1832), that " he found the seeds of 

 nearly all leguminous plants germinate more readily by having 

 water heated to 200°, or even to the boiling point of 

 Fahrenheit's scale, poured over them, leaving them to steep 

 and the water to cool for twenty-four hours." Subsequently, 

 the practice has been adopted by other persons with perfect 

 success; and, some years ago, seedlings of Acacia lophantha 

 were exhibited before the Horticultural Society by the late 

 Mr. Thomas Gary Palmer, which had sprung from seeds boiled 

 for as much as five minutes. I am also acquainted with other 

 cases, one of the more remarkable of which was the germina- 

 tion of the seeds of the Raspberry, picked from a jar of jam, 

 and which must therefore have been exposed to the temperature 

 of 230°, the boiling point of syrup. It is difficult to understand 

 in what way so violent an action can be beneficial to anything 

 possessing vitality ;' the fact, however, is certain. As such 

 instances of success are confined to seeds with hard shells, it is 

 possible that th« heated fluid may act in pai«t mechanically by 

 cracking the shell, in part as a solvent of the Matters enclosed 

 in the seed, and in part'as a stianulant. 



Some years since Mr. Lymburn, nurseryman at Kilmarnock, 

 called attention to the effect produced upon germinating seeds 

 by alkaline substances. He stated that experiments narrated, 

 in Brewster's t/ojirwaJ of Science, having shown that the negative 

 €>r alkaline pole of a galvanic battery caused seeds to germinate 

 in much less time than the positive or acid pole, he was induced 



