130 The Principles of Vegetable- Oar dening 



commonly overlooked. Seeds grown in the' North 

 usually germinate more quickly and sometimes tend to 

 make earlier plants than those grown in the South.* 



3. Seeds which are under-ripe tend to lose their 

 vitality relatively early. Seeds often may be made to 

 germinate if gathered and dried when still very green, 

 if only the embryo is well formed. Seeds of tomatoes 

 which do not weigh more than two-thirds as much 

 as fully ripe ones and which are still very green, may 

 be made to grow when properly cured. Such seeds 

 usually give earlier plants, although the plants are 

 likely to be weaker ; but the seeds do not long retain 

 their viability. 



Sagot (Gard. Chron. Sept., 1874, 329) succeeded in germinating 

 green kernels of wheat which were still soft and tender, collected at 

 a time when nutrient matters were semi -liquid. When well dried 

 in air, these kernels weighed but half as much as ripe kernels. 

 "All of them germinated, though slowly." Unripe peas, weigh- 

 ing one-half, one-fifth and even one-twelfth of ripe peas, were 

 made to germinate by the same experimenter. The half -weight 

 seeds germinated rapidly. Of the twelfth-weight seeds, many 

 did not germinate, and some died soon after the commencement 

 of their development. Half-weight seeds of beans and four- 

 o^clock (Mirabilis Jalapa) also germinated. 



Studies of unripe seeds as a factor in plant-breeding have 

 been made in this country by Sturtevant, Arthur and Goif . For 

 an epitome of the results-, see Arthur in American Naturalist, 

 1895, pp. 806, 904. 



4. The manner of storing amd handling determines 

 the longevity of seeds to a great extent. In fact, the 

 most vigorous and naturally long-lived seeds may be 



*See tests recorded in Bull. 7, Cornell Exp. Sta. For discussions of the 

 philosophy of the subject, see Essay 17, in the author s "Survival of the Unlike." 



