804 The American Naturalist. [September, 
DEVIATION IN DEVELOPMENT DUE TO THE USE 
OF UNRIPE SEEDS. 
5 By J. C. ARTHUR. 
There is something surprising in the degree of immaturity 
at which seeds will grow. The usual opinion is, I believe, that 
seeds not fully ripe will be shrunken and light, and quite 
worthless for sowing. To some extent there is truth in this, 
and yet seeds will vegetate when taken from fruit not half 
grown, and in which the pulp and even the seeds themselves 
have the color of fresh, green leaves. Plants from such seeds 
may flourish, bloom and fruit, and with a certain moderate 
amount of deviation, show all the usual phases of existence in- 
cident to the particular kind of plant life. 
This is by no means a recent discovery, but was known to 
Theophrastus,’ as early as the third century before Christ, who 
expressed his surprise at the fact, and says that it is wonderful 
that unripe, imperfect seeds should be able to grow. The fact 
was established experimentally, however, by several early in- 
vestigators, notably by Duhamel,’ in 1760, using flowering ash 
and walnut, by Senebier,‘ in 1800, using peas, and by Lefebure,’ 
in 1801, using radish. In 1822 a successful trial with green 
seed was made by Seyffer,’ of Stuttgart, which has attracted 
much attention. The Japanese Sophora, although growing to 
be a fine tree in Germany, does not often set fruit, and never 
ripens any, at least in Wiirtemberg, on account of the cool sum- 
mers. Despairing of ever securing ripe seed from which to 
propagate the tree, Seyffer took a branch bearing green fruit, 
not yet half full size, hung it up until dry, then removed and 
planted the seed ina cold frame. In this way he obtained 500 
1 Read before the section of botany of the A. A. A. S., Madison meeting, Aug- 
ust, 1893. 
? De causis plantarum, lib. iv. , Cap. 4. 
3 Duhamel du Monceau, Des semis et plantation des arbres, p. 83. 
‘Senebier, Phys. végétale, iii, p. 377 
“ Š Lefebure, Expériences sur la germination des plantes, p. 27. 
/ ®Seyffer, Isis, 1838, p. 113. 
