ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE 



115 



Results of Experiments on Seeds of Entada scandens by Filing 

 INTO the Seed-coats. (The five seeds employed varied from 323 

 to 430 grains, but the results are stated in percentages.) 



Noie. — The actual variation of A was only 406*5 to 406*6 during the two years. 

 Seeds C and D failed to germinate when tested ; the others were not tried. Probably 

 the failure was due to the method employed, since seeds of Guilandina honducella, 

 subjected to a similar experiment, germinated healthily, after remaining for two years in 

 the condition of B and D. (See Chapter IV. ) 



The indications given in Chapter IV as regards the relative 

 efFects on the subsequent weight of impermeable seeds of 

 puncturing the coats and of removing them altbgether may 

 here be supplemented. As before remarked, the increase in 

 weight through the absorption of water from the air is more 

 rapid when the seed is bared than when it is merely punctured 

 or filed, the maximum weight being usually attained in a few 

 days in the one case, whilst the gain in the second case is ex- 

 tended over several weeks and even months. In Chapter IV 

 it has been already shown in the case of a typical experiment on 

 the seeds of Guilandina honducella that whilst the bared kernels 

 reached their maximum weight of 14 or 15 per ceiit, in excess 

 during five days, the filed seeds occupied four or five months in 

 increasing their weight 10 or 11 per cent. The punctured seeds 

 of Entada scandens behave in the same tedious way as indicated 

 in the tabulated results above given, whilst the bared kernels 



Impermeable 

 seeds gain 

 weight far 

 more rapidly 

 when bared 

 than when , 



gunctured or 

 led. 



