58 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 1. 
in addition to this vigour in the buds, it also assists 
materially to preserve the roots or tubers through a 
long winter, because they are more matured. All 
this is strictly in accordance with the best ascertained 
facts in vegetable physiology. We recommend to 
our readers, therefore, the advice of our coadjutor in¬ 
stead of that offered by our contemporary. 
As water is essential to germination, and only a 
certain quantity is required for its healthy progress, 
so is it by no means a matter of indifference what 
matter it holds in solution. Until germination has 
commenced, no liquid but water at common tempe¬ 
ratures will pass through the integuments of a seed. 
So soon as germination has commenced, this power 
to exclude foriegn fluids ceases, but the organs start¬ 
ing into activity, the radicle and the plumule, or 
young root and stem, are so delicate, that the weak¬ 
est saline solutions are too acrid and offensive for 
them. So utterly incapable are the infant roots of 
imbibing such solutions, that at first they are abso¬ 
lutely dependent themselves, for their very existence, 
upon the seed-leaves; and if these be removed, the 
plant either makes no further advance, or alto¬ 
gether perishes. Many years since we tried various 
liquids, to facilitate the germination of seeds; but, 
with the exception of those which promoted the de¬ 
composition of water, and the consequent more abun¬ 
dant evolution of oxygen, we found none of any effi¬ 
ciency. As to keeping the seeds in saline solutions 
until they germinated, we never, certainly, carried 
our experiments so far as that; and shall be most 
astonished if any other effect than injury or death to 
the plant is the consequence. Such has been the 
result in the Horticultural Society’s gardens, where 
the seeds of Lupinus Harticegii were made to germi¬ 
nate in a weak solution of phosphate of ammonia. 
No liquid in which water does not preponderate 
will enable a seed moistened with it to germinate; 
for we have treated broad beans, kidney beans, and 
peas with pure alcohol (spirit of wine), olive oil, 
alcohol and water, in equal proportions by measure, 
and with a solution of carbonate of ammonia, but in 
no instance did they germinate. 
It may he noted as a warning to those who employ 
steeps for seed, with the hope of promoting the vigour 
of the future plant, that they must keep the seed in 
those steeps a very few hours. In forty-eight hours, 
if the temperature be 60° or more, putrefaction com¬ 
mences, and germination is weakened, or entirely 
destroyed. 
M. Vogel, of Munich, has published an extended 
course of experiments upon this subject; and they 
fully confirm our opinion, that salts, harmless when 
the plant is of robust and advanced growth, are fatal 
to it at the time of germination; for he found that 
seeds germinate without injury in carbonate of lime | 
(chalk), carbonate of strontian, litharge, red oxide of 
lead, phosphate of lead, black oxide of manganese, 
calomel, and cinnabar. That they germinate feebly 
in carbonate of magnesia, copper filings, sulphuret 
of antimony, red oxide of mercury, and aqueous solu¬ 
tion of iodine. Lastly, that they refused to germi¬ 
nate at all in carbonate of barytes, hydrate of barytes, 
iodine pulverised and moistened, kermes mineral, 
golden sulphur of antimony, oxide of bismuth, ar- 
seniate of lead, and green oxide of chromium. These 
are facts which explain the result of practice, that 
saline manures are generally injurious if applied 
with the seed, though they may be beneficial if ap¬ 
plied long before the seed time, or, subsequently, 
when the plants are of advanced growth. 
Nothing is so injurious to a germinating seed as 
great vicissitudes of temperature and moisture, or a 
lengthened exposure to excess of the latter; in either 
case the awakening life of the seed is frequently en¬ 
tirely extinguished. Nothing is more dreaded by the 
maltster than a sudden check to his germinating bar¬ 
ley; and, as a chill to the incubating egg effectually 
prevents the formation of a chick, so does a sudden 
degree of cold often destroy the sprouting seed. To 
preserve the seeds of our winter crops from such 
vicissitudes, they may be sown beneficially upon, and 
covered with a thin stratum of coal-ashes—these are 
an excellent drainage, as well as a good non-con¬ 
ductor of heat. 
It affords a warning, too, to those who have to pack 
seeds for lengthened transport in tropical regions. 
They cannot be kept too dry—for heat alone will 
have no influence over their germination; and they 
should, therefore, be put into small, open, canvass- 
bags, and suspended from the beams of the upper 
cabins, where a current of air will keep the seeds as 
free as possible from damp. Close packing in paper, 
in boxes, and in tin cases, stowed away in the hot 
hold of a ship, causes such a heating of the seeds, 
such an extrication of moisture from them, as is just 
enough to commence germination; and which, only 
carried through its first stage, ceases, and then de¬ 
composition ensues, which effectually destroys the 
arousing vitality. 
Water being such an essential application to the 
seed as well as to the growing plant, it may he also 
observed that the source from whence it comes is by 
no means immaterial. The best for the gardener’s 
purpose is rain water, preserved in tanks sunk in the 
earth, and rendered tight by puddling or bricks, and 
Parker’s cement. To keep these replenished, gutters 
should run round the eaves of every structure in the 
garden, and communicate with these tanks. Every 
100 cubic inches of rain water contains more than 
four cubic inches of air, of which more than half are 
carbonic acid gas, and the remainder nitrogen and 
oxygen, in the proportion of 6 2 of the former to 38 of 
the last named. Liebig, from actual experiment on 
