238 DURABILITY OF SEED-LIFE— COLOURED LIGHT. 



certain ; for no such results as those he speaks of can be obtained. [See 

 Journal of the Sort Soc, vol. ii. p. 35.) Tbe subject has been treated 

 ■with great care by Professor Edward Solly, whose experim-ents are 

 recorded in the TVansaetions of the Sort. Soc, 2nd series, vol. iii, 

 p. 197. Not only did he fail to discover any practical advantage in 

 steeping seeds in chemical solutions, but upon the whole his results 

 showed it to be injurious ; and in no one instance did it appear that the 

 effect of the steeping went beyond the period of germination. The 

 trial of Bickes' method equally failed in the Jardin des Plantes, as we 

 learn from the Revue Horticole. 



The length of time that some seeds will lie in the ground, 

 under circumstances favourable to germination, without growing, 

 is very remarkable, and inexplicable upon any known principle. 

 If the Hawthorn be sown immediately after the seeds are ripe, 

 a part will appear as plants the next spring ; a larger number 

 the second year; and stragglers, sometimes in considerable 

 numbers, even in the third and fourth seasons. Seeds of the 

 genera Eibes, Berberis, and Pseonia have a similar habit. 

 M. Savi is related by De Candolle to have had, for more than 

 ten years, a crop of Tobacco from one original sowing ; the 

 young plants having been destroyed yearly, without being 

 allowed to form their seed. This matter does not, perhaps, 

 concern the theory of horticulture, for theory is incapable of 

 ■explaining it ; but it is a fact that it is useful to know, because 

 it may prevent still living seeds from being thrown away, under 

 the idea that, as they did not grow the first year, they vdll 

 never grow at aU. 



Mr. Hunt believes that coloured light exercises a peculiar 

 influence upon germination ; that yellow light prevents it, and 

 red light impedes it, while blue light accelerates it in a 

 remarkable degree. But when seeds have been made to 

 germinate beneath red, yellow, and blue plates of glass, no 

 other result has been practically obtained than what may be 

 referred to the action of bright light on the one hand, and 

 shade on the other. If under blue glass seeds germinate more 

 quickly than under red or yellow, it seems to be because they 

 are much more shaded. At all events Mr. Hunt's ingenious 

 inquiries into the effect of coloured Hght on plants seem to 

 have no practical bearing. 



