Viability of Seeds — A kamine 
41 
brush box could be kept viable for several 
years provided it was stored at this humidity. 
Another effective method of prolonging the 
life of the seed was to store it in airtight con- 
tainers at 45° F. (Fig. 2). 
Turpentine tree seed 
The germination results of this seed in 
storage under various conditions are shown 
in Figure 3. Seeds stored at different relative 
humidities behaved differently at different 
temperatures. In general, at room tempera- 
ture, the lower the humidity the better the 
seed kept, although toward the latter part of 
the storage period, the 45 per cent relative 
humidity seemed somewhat superior to the 
30 per cent humidity. After a prolonged stor- 
age period at room temperature, the viability 
of the seeds in airtight and open storage was 
approximately the same, and the germination 
Fig. 3. The eflFect of temperature and relative humid- 
ity on the viability of stored turpentine tree seed. 
curves for these seeds lie above the 75 per cent 
relative humidity curve and below the 60 per 
cent humidity curve (Fig. 3). Seeds stored at 
relative humidities of 30, 45, and 75 per cent 
maintained their original germination after 4 
years of storage at 59° F. Storage at a relative 
humidity of 60 per cent and storage in air- 
tight and open containers were slightly less 
effective than the above humidities at this 
temperature. Storage at 90 per cent relative 
humidity at 59° F. was detrimental to the 
keeping quality of the seed. With prolonged 
storage at 45° F., relative humidities of 45 and 
75 per cent seemed to be about the optimum 
media for maintaining the longevity of the 
seed; relative humidities of 30 and 60 per cent 
and airtight storage seemed to be the next 
best storage media. Open storage at this 
temperature was slightly inferior to the above 
storage conditions. Storage at 90 per cent 
relative humidity was inferior to all in retain- 
ing the viability of the seed. 
When the graphs in Figure 3 are superim- 
posed, it is seen that at a relative humidity of 
30 per cent, 59° F. was more effective than 
45° F. or room temperature in retaining the 
viability of the seed. At relative humidities of 
45, 60, and 75 per cent and in airtight storage, 
the seed kept in a viable condition longer at 
45° and 59° F. than at room temperature. The 
two lower temperatures were equally effec- 
tive in this respect. The loss of viability of 
the seeds stored at a relative humidity of 90 
per cent was proportional to the storage 
temperature; that is, the higher the tempera- 
ture, the more rapid was the loss in viability. 
With open storage, 59° F. was slightly 
superior to 45° F., which in turn was superior 
to room temperature in maintaining the life 
of the seed. 
From the above considerations, it seemed 
that an optimum storage medium for the seed 
of turpentine tree was one in which the rela- 
tive humidity was maintained at either 30, 45, 
or 75 per cent at 59° F., or one in which the 
relative humidity was maintained at either 45 
or 75 per cent at 45° F. 
