GERMINATION TESTS. 11 



The control samples are being stored in cloth bags in a dry room on 

 the second floor of the Seed Laboratory. The first complete series of 

 three sets was taken up in November, 1903, eleven months after they 

 had been buried. The results of the first year's experiment are given 

 in the following pages. 



GERMINATION TESTS. 



In making the germination tests of the buried seeds the contents of 

 the pots, the mixture of seed and soil, were spread on sand in ordinary 

 greenhouse flats. Along with these, in the same flats, were control 

 samples taken from the original bulk lot of seeds, as previously men- 

 tioned. In addition, another complete set of control samples was 

 tested in the germinating chambers of the Seed Laboratory. The tem- 

 peratures given in the ta lis are those best suited for the germination 

 of the different seeds. 



For convenience the results of the germination tests have been 

 divided into three groups, as follows: 



A. Seeds in which the control samples, as well as those that were 

 buried, gave only negative results when tested in the greenhouse. 



B. Seeds which had cither decayed or germinated and afterwards 

 decayed while they were buried. 



C. Seeds which had not completely lost their vitality while buried. 

 The first group, i. e., those in which both the control samples and 



those which had been buried failed to germinate when planted in flats 

 in the greenhouse, consists of the following species: 



1. Axyris amaranthoides L. (Russian pigweed). 



2. Boehmeria nivea Guad. (ramie). 



:;. Bursa bursa-pastoris ( L. ) Britton (shepherd's purse). 



4. Cannabis saliva L. (hemp). 



5. Cliaetochloa viridis ( L. i Scribn. (green foxtail} 



6. Citrulluscitrullus(L.) Karst. (watermelon). 

 ' perus esculenlus L. (yellow nut-grass). 



8. Onagra biennis (L.) Scop, (evening primrose). 



9. Polygonum pennsylvanicum L. (Pennsylvania smartweed, persicaria). 



10. Polygonum persicaria L. (lady's-thurnb, smartweed). 



11. Polygonum scandensh. (climbing false buckwheat). 



12. Sporobolus airoides Torr. (hair-grass drop-seed). 



13. Sporobolus cryptandrus (Torr.) A. Gray (sand drop-seed — hulled seed). 



In this series the hemp should be discarded, as repeated tests failed 

 to -how any seeds from the bulk samples capable of germination. The 

 control samples of the other seeds when tested in the germinating 

 chambers germinated nearly as well and in some cases even better than 

 the chamber tests which were made at the time the seeds were buried. 

 Undoubtedly some of these seeds had decayed while buried in the soil; 

 in fact, the watermelon seeds, Axyris amaranthoides, and Sporobolus 

 airoides were marked "mostly decayed" when taken up. Generally 

 -peaking, the results show that the failure to germinate was not in the 



