268 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 23, 189t. 
GERMINATION. 
Many are now busy preparing for and sowing seeds ; it is, 
therefore, very advisable at this season to study something about 
them, and the changes which they undergo during the process of 
germination. The first question we might ask is. What is a seed ? 
A seed may be said to consist of three parts—an outer skin called 
the “ testa,” which envelops the young plantlet, forming a cohering 
which protects it from injury; 2, an “embryonic plant,” which 
consists of a primary root (the radical), a young bud (the plumule), 
and one or two seed leaves (the cotyledons) ; 3, a supply of food, 
which is stored in the cotyledons, or outside the plantlet, and is 
known in the latter case as the endosperm. 
What are the changes which take place in a germinating seed ? 
The seed when sown under suitable conditions absorbs water ; this 
causes it to swell considerably, and the rapidity of germination 
may be said to depend a great deal on the quantity of water the 
ssed absorbs ; this absorption is a mechanical change. If there be 
sufficient heat, germination will now take place ; the food material 
stored in the seed is in an insoluble form, consequently it 
cannot be of any use as such ; but there is a nitrogenous ferment 
(diastase) in the seed, which acts on some of these insoluble 
compounds (e gr., starch is converted into sugar) and transforms | 
them into soluble compounds, which can be at once used by the 
growing plant. Many other changes take place which we as yet 
know but little about, but they are no doubt due to the agency of 
some kind of ferment. The above process is one of oxidation, 
carbon dioxide and heat during the process being evolved ; the j 
substances formed, if in the cotyledons, pass through the vascular 
bundle to the growing parts of the embryonic plant, but if it be 
stored outside the plantlet it becomes soluble and is absorbed by 
the plant as required, by cells adapted for this purpose. A certain 
degree of heat is necessary for the processes above named to be 
carried on ; the most suitable temperature for the majority of seeds 
is from 60° to 80°. 
The first noticeable change taking place in the seed is the 
protrusion of the radical through a minute opening in the testa, 
known as the micropyle. This grows downwards into the soil 
and becomes branched, root hairs are developed, and the plant is 
able to absorb water and contained salts for the purpose of 
nutrition ; by the growth of the radical the testa is split, and the 
plumule grows upwards to form the future stem ; sometimes the 
cotyledons are carried up, and they carry on the work of assimilation 
until the foliage leaves are developed—e.y., Mustard, Cress, Tomato, 
and Cucumbers; in other cases the cotyledons remain in the ground 
and supply the plant with food till it has developed its first foliage 
leaves— e.g.,, Peas and Beans, As soon as the cotyledons are 
exposed to sunlight and become green they commence to form 
food material for the plant, so the young plant is nourished in two 
different ways for a time. 
What are the conditions necessary for germinating seeds ? The 
seed should be obtained from a good variety, and in the majority 
of cases ought to be only one year old. The soil must be in a good 
mechanical condition and have a fine tilth, so that the young root 
may penetrate through its particles easily and yet be in close con¬ 
tact with them. Sufficient soil should be used to cover the seeds, 
but great care is needed that small seeds are not buried too deeply; 
the soil should be loose enough to allow the air free access, but not 
too open, to allow of excessive evaporation, or the seeds may suffer 
for want of water. 
How may the conditions of the soil be made most suitable for 
germination ? Clayey soil should be well worked in the autumn, 
and left in ridges for the action of the frost and air to pulverise it, 
and it is best, if farmyard manure is going to be applied, to use it 
in a long state at this time of the year. We should then get the 
soil in a fine condition, which is so suitable for the sowing of seeds. 
It is not advisable to ridge sandy soils because of their open 
character, and farmyard manure should be decomposed and only 
used in the spring for such soils, or much of its fertilising matters 
will be washed out. 
Anything which will make adhesive soils more porous should 
be used, such as old mortar, sand, quicklime, and gritty matter 
generally ; while light porous soils may be improved by the 
application of clay, marl, carbonate of lime, and organic matter. 
In connection with the use of farmyard manure for seeds, it should 
never be put too near the surface, for by its decay carbonic acid 
gas will be formed, which will deprive the seeds of some of their 
oxygen, an ingredient which germinating seeds cannot do without, 
and it would also, by the carbon dioxide being in the soil, act 
injuriously to a certain extent on the young seedlings. Great care 
must be taken never to work soil when it is wet; and one more 
point to be noticed is never to beat the surface of the seed bed 
with the back of the spade. If the soil wants consolidating it can 
be done with a rake, for if the spade be used the soil, when dry, 
will crack, and a too excessive evaporation will take place.— 
W. Dyke. 
PLANT HOSPITALS—A SUGGESTION. 
In the early stages of civilisation hospitals, as far as I have 
been able to ascertain, were entirely unknown. It may be that 
owing to the primitive mode of life which the “ noble savage ” 
followed, that sickness, except in the form of senile decay, was so 
rare that such institutions were not needed, or perhaps, as some 
stirring writers tell us, those in good health were utterly indifferent 
as to whether the ailing ones recovered or not. Be that as it may, 
there can be no denying that the march of civilisation, with its 
great centres of population, has created the necessity for vast 
buildings in which skilled doctors may bestow on suffering patients 
the magic blessing of their healing art. 
Plant-growing under glass in this country has risen from small 
beginnings to gigantic proportions more rapidly than has civilisa¬ 
tion in any quarter of the globe, and, strange as it may appear to 
superficial thinkers, to me it seems that plant hospitals have now 
become as much a necessity in well appointed gardens as hospitals 
for frail humanity are near all centres of population. Let us now 
try and find out some reason for this analogy. In each case I think 
it is accounted for by the unnatural and therefore unhealthy condi¬ 
tions to which so many human beings and plants are subjected 
during a great portion of their time. The one in shops, factories, 
mines, and busy cities ; the other in dwelling rooms, public halls, 
and churches. ^ Having so far attempted in my own peculiar way 
to draw some comparisons between plant and animal life, I must 
now confine my remarks to matters connected with the former, 
and leave the latter to the care of the modern “ medicine men.” 
So many plants are now used for the decoration of dwelling 
rooms, that it is absolutely necessary to proceed on systematic 
lines to supply the demand. A large number of flowering and 
fine-foliaged plants, too, in a small state are not worth keeping 
after they have been used for such decorations. The supply and 
demand in such instances simply amounts to growing a sufficient 
number of the necessary size, using them for the purpose for 
which they were intended, then consigning them to the rubbish 
heap, and propagating others to succeed them. This course, how¬ 
ever, cannot be followed with all decorative plants, as many of 
them are large and valuable ; others are choice, of slow growth, 
and must be reserved to do duty on future occasions. With 
plants of this description, a golden rule, of course, is not to let 
them stay too long at a time in the dry atmosphere of dwelling 
rooms, but change them frequently. Still, with taking such 
precautions, and with the best of management in other respects, 
they will get into a sluggish and unhealthy condition. The usual 
course followed then is to place them in plant stoves or forcing 
houses, where they receive the treatment suitable for the general 
occupants of the house, and invariably take a long time to recover. 
This, however, is not the only evil. Another one is that their 
disfigurement quite spoils the appearance of a house principally 
filled with healthy plants. In gardens where much house decora¬ 
tion has to be done it is a most difficult matter to keep a good show 
in the glass houses, because so much is taken to the house and 
spoilt as soon as it has been grown into a suitable size. For this 
reason it is not possible to form a fair estimate of a gardener’s 
ability by the plants growing in the Louses under his charge ; you 
must first know how much house decoration he is called on to 
perform. 
Bearing these numerous matters in mind, I maintain that an 
improved state of affairs may be brought about by devoting one 
house entirely to the accommodation of plants in a disfigured or 
unhealthy state. Such cases then receive exactly the treatment 
they require to secure a speedy return to health and vigour, and 
shabby looking plants may at all times be kept out of other 
structures. The size of a plant hospital should of course depend 
on the requirements and resources of each establishment, but two 
things are absolutely essential to success—viz., that beds be pro¬ 
vided with abundance of bottom heat supplied by means of hot-water 
pipes fixed beneath plunging material, and that some system of 
shading be adopted which may be brought quickly into use at all 
seasons of the year. 
Either a span-roofed or lean-to structure would answer equally 
well. The sides of the house might be fitted up with beds 3 or 
4 feet in width, similar to a well-appointed Melon house, except 
that the bottom-heat pipes ought to be fixed within a foot or 
9 inches of the top of the brick wall enclosing the bed. This 
would leave ample room for a sufficient depth of cocoa-nut fibre 
refuse for plunging purposes. Valves ought of course to be fixed 
so that the amount of bottom and top heat may at all times be 
regulated at will. If a good part of this bed is enclosed with glass 
