CHAPTER X 



THE FATE OF SEEDS AS INDICATED BY THE BALANCE 



We realise from the results of the recent researches of Becquerel Long years 

 and others that long years are needed for the satisfactory study for the study 

 of the latent life of seeds, a period, to employ the words of jjfoof ieeds 

 this French investigator, far longer than the time during which 

 the seeds preserve their germinative powers. This is as true 

 for the indications of the balance as it is for those of any other 

 method of physical or chemical research. It is necessary that 

 the life of the inquirer should extend beyond that of the seed 

 he is studying ; and too often, as Jodin aptly observes, the 

 savant who commences such an experiment will never know 

 the results. This is the spirit in which we should approach 

 such a difficult subject as the life of the seed, one of the 

 deepest and most mysterious problems that can occupy the 

 wits of man. A study, though unfinished, is not altogether 

 incomplete if we leave it so that others can take it up. There- 

 fore, although the results given in this chapter are derived 

 from experiments two to four and a half years in length, they 

 represent only the beginning of a long series of experiments 

 which, it may be, someone else may continue after my term 

 of life has ended. 



Yet we have here a record of the start and sufficient 

 indications to enable us to look a little ahead in the matter. 

 After seeds have entered upon the resting stage and have 

 quite completed the process of drying in air, four possibilities 

 present themselves. As years go on they may either lose or 



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