128 Delay in Germination of the Seeds of Euphorbias. 
open ground took fifty-one to ninety-three days. Only one seedling 
died; the rest grew into strong healthy plants, and by the middle of 
August had not only ripened their seeds, but were already 
surrounded by seedlings which must have germinated shortly after 
the seeds had fallen to the ground. The second noticeable result was 
that none of the seeds in Pot 4 germinated. I am inclined to think 
that I contributed to this failure by having soaked the seeds and 
then exposed them to the cold frosty ground in their moistened 
state. They must have been frozen and then rotted in the ground, 
as I could find no trace of them when I turned out the soil in 
August. I generally find that soaking hastens germination in 
leguminous and other seeds, but it did not have this effect on the 
Euphorbia seeds sown in the hotbed. I had now shown that seeds 
of Euphorbia Peplus, an annual, will germinate readily in suitable 
conditions after being kept dry, in the air, for several years, and 
also that they will germinate as soon as sown. It remained, 
therefore, to make the experiment more complete, to show whether 
the seeds would germinate as readily after having been kept through 
the winter, and when they would be in a state of rest. Accordingly 
I gathered some seeds last autumn and sowed them in a hotbed on 
March 26 th, 1902 , and the seedlings began to appear on April 16 th, 
and continued to do so at intervals of a few days, beginning 
twenty-one days after they were sown. It is clear, therefore, that 
there is no compulsory dormant period inherent in these seeds; and 
one asks: does it exist really in any seeds? How can the seeds of 
the annual, Euphorbia exigua, have resisted for nine years? Is 
there any guarantee that for nine years the necessary conditions for 
germination, i.e. warmth and moisture, were always present? 
Each year I grow a large number of annual and perennial seeds for 
the garden. Annuals I have invariably found to germinate the same 
season, and most perennials do the same. A few species I have 
found require a whole year in the ground, e.g. Paeonia corallina. 
The delay is usually owing to the presence of a hard testa which 
requires prolonged moistening, not to any inherent quality in the 
seed. 
May, 1902 . 
Elhonoua Armitagh:. 
