By Edward Solly, Esq. 



207 



The whole series of experiments was made in rather unfavour- 

 able weather, being a period of unusual drought; this greatly 

 checked the germination of the seeds, and in some instances 

 retarded it for some weeks. The beans, No. 10, mostly came up in 

 the course of the following fortnight, but those which had first 

 come up, which had been steeped in water, retained their supe- 

 riority to the last. The general results of these experiments, as far 

 as they may be trusted, are rather against seed-steeping. As 

 regards the wheat, barley and lettuces, it certainly seems as if the 

 salts employed did accelerate germination, because in two cases, 

 namely sulphate of magnesia and phosphate of ammonia, more than 

 twice as many plants had come up than where no steeping or only 

 water had been employed ; we may therefore conclude that in these 

 cases, the salts and not the water, produced the effect which was 

 observed. In all the other experiments, however, the salts appear 

 to have done more or less harm ; at least the seeds which were 

 steeped germinated less rapidly than those not steeped in saline 

 solutions. In the case of the oats, peas, and mustard, the un- 

 steeped seeds and those steeped in water alone, germinated most 

 rapidly, the latter rather having the start of the former. In the 

 rye and cress the unsteeped seeds germinated most rapidly, whilst 

 those steeped in water were beaten by some of the saline solutions, 

 and in the turnips and beans, those steeped in water came up first, 

 whilst some of those prepared with saline solutions germinated 

 sooner than the unprepared seeds. 



The different salts acted differently on the various seeds em- 

 ployed : thus in the case of wheat and barley, sulphate of magnesia, 

 and phosphate of ammonia, produced the best effect of all the salts 

 employed; with turnips, lettuces and mustard, common salt and 

 chloride of calcium acted best ; with peas and beans, sulphate of 

 magnesia had the greatest effect ; with rye and cress, chloride of 

 calcium and sulphate of magnesia were most advantageous ; whilst 

 with oats, all the salts employed, produced very little effect. It 



