417 



The Ferments and Latent Life of Resting Seeds. 

 By Jean White, M.Sc, Victorian Government Eesearch Scholar. 



(Communicated by D. H. Scott, F.E.S. Received March. 3, — Eead 

 March 18, 1909.) 



This subject was suggested to rne by Prof. Ewart as an outcome of his long 

 series of experiments on the longevity of seeds* Por the most part, I have 

 confined my attention solely to the seeds of cereals as being of the greatest 

 importance in agriculture.f 



The scheme proposed for the carrying out of these investigations 

 necessitated the procuring of old grains ; this was not an easy matter, 

 but after several months I was very fortunate in having seeds forwarded 

 from the Agricultural Department, Victoria ; Dookie Agricultural College, 

 Victoria ; the Chamber of Commerce, South Australia ; and the Hawkesbury 

 Agricultural College, ]STew South Wales. For these I am much indebted to 

 Messrs. J. Knight, H. Pye, and W. Potts, whom I now take the opportunity 

 of thanking for the trouble they have taken. 



Many of the seeds obtained from the Agricultural Department of Victoria 

 were travelling samples, and had been in the possession of the department 

 for from 8 to 10 years, but whether they had been harvested the same 

 season or the previous one to that in which they were put up is not exactly 

 known. The greater number of the specimens sent from South Australia 

 and ISTew South Wales were accompanied by information as to the exact 

 date of their harvesting. 



The oldest grains available were samples of wheat received from South 

 Australia which had been stored for 21 years. 



The old specimens of barley, oats, and rye were amongst those previously 

 referred to which were obtained from the Agricultural Department, Victoria, 

 and whose minimum age must be at least 8 to 10 years. In all the above 

 cases, certain of the different samples of grains had completely lost all their 

 power of- germination, so that they were exactly what I required in order to 

 be enabled to carry out one section of the work. I was not quite so fortunate 

 as regards the maize, for the oldest seeds in my possession were grown only 

 4-£ years ago, and had only partially lost their germinating power. 



* ' Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of Victoria,' vol. 21 (New Series), August, 1908. 



t The whole of the work in the following paper has been carried out in the Botanical 

 Laboratory of Melbourne University under Prof. Ewart's supervision, who has also 

 critically tested and verified certain experiments and written the summary at the end of 

 the paper. The expenses of the work were defrayed from the Eesearch Scholarship and 

 Apparatus Fund of the Victorian Government. 



