GERMINATION TESTS. 13 



The corn, sweet corn, corn cockle, cabbage, cotton, peas, beans, 

 buckwheat, wheat, and barley — the first ten samples given in the fore- 

 going table — were all so unmistakably deca} T ed when the seeds were 

 taken up that the contents of the pots were thrown away, no green- 

 house tests being made. The first six of these samples showed no 

 trace of any remains of old sprouts; apparently all of the seeds had 

 decayed before germination had taken place. If germination took 

 place it must have been comparatively soon after burial, thus giving 

 ample time for all of the old sprouts to decay beyond identification. 

 This, however, seems hardly probable, considering that the seeds 

 were buried during the latter part of December, 1902; moreover, the 

 beans, buckwheat, and barley from some or all of the different depths 

 showed clearly the remains of well-developed radicles. 



The beans which were buried at depths of from 6 to 8 and from 18 to 

 22 inches had decayed, while many of those buried at a depth of from 

 36 to 42 inches had germinated and afterwards deca} T ed. The buck- 

 wheat from the 6 to 8 inch depth showed that approximately 10 per 

 cent had germinated, while at 18 to 22 inches there were onty the 

 remains of an occasional old sprout, and at 36 to 42 inches all of the 

 seed had decayed. In the wheat the greater number of the grains 

 that were buried from 6 to 8 and from 36 to 42 inches had germinated 

 and then decayed, while those which were buried at a depth of from 

 18 to 22 inches showed only decayed seed. Approximately all of the 

 barley at the three different depths had germinated and afterwards 

 decayed. 



The last fourteen species given in this table were marked "decayed" 

 when the seeds were taken up, but as the conditions were not so clearlj r 

 indicated as in those first mentioned, germination tests were made in 

 the greenhouse. 



The results of the germination tests show that none of the pots con- 

 tained an}' viable seeds. Of this latter group only the pots containing 

 the Asparagus ojfi c <mo I is &nd Brom us racemosus (Nos. 32 and 33) showed 

 remains of old sprouts. The seeds in the other pots apparent^ had 

 all decayed without any germination during the time they were buried. 

 The germination of the asparagus seed had been almost perfect. The 

 pot buried at the greatest depth contained only a mass of sprouts, 

 many of which Avere still partially alive. The Bromus racemosus 

 showed that germination had taken place only in the pots buried at 

 6 to S and 36 to 42 inches, while those buried at the depth of 18 to 22 

 inches had all decayed before germinating. 



It is interesting to note in this connection the behavior of the two 

 species of Bromus- — Bromus Secdlinus (cheat or chess) and B. race- 

 mosus (upright chess). The seeds of both of these species had com- 

 pletely lost their vitality within the eleven months in the soil, while 

 the control samples gave a germination of 95.5 and 92.5 per cent, 



