Am'M°ayr"  iPQhia7rm"  ')    Germination  of  Belladonna  Seed.  203 
FURTHER  NOTES  ON  THE  GERMINATION  OF  BELLA- 
DONNA SEED.1 
By  A.  F.  Sievers,  Chemical  Biologist,  Office  of  Drug-Plant  and  Poisonous- 
Plant  Investigations,  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  U.  S.  Department 
of  Agriculture. 
Several  years  ago2  the  writer  made  a  study  of  the  germination 
of  belladonna  seed  with  the  object  of  determining  the  causes  of  the 
numerous  difficulties  encountered  in  germinating  this  seed.  The 
conclusions  drawn  from  that  investigation  may,  for  the  sake  of  con- 
venience, be  briefly  summarized  as  follows  :  ( 1 )  Freezing  accelerates 
germination;  (2)  there  is  no  apparent  relationship  between  the  size 
of  the  seed  and  its  germinating  power;  (3)  heavy  seed  germinates 
much  better  than  light  seed;  (4)  color  is  no  criterion  of  the  value 
of  the  seed;  (5)  treatment  with  sulphuric  acid,  while  it  has  a  slight 
accelerating  effect,  does  not  increase  the  percentage  of  germination ; 
(6)  treatment  with  hydrogen  peroxide  was  found  to  be  of  material 
benefit;  (7)  scratching  the  seed  coats  by  mechanical  means  is  only 
of  little  value. 
The  great  increase  in  the  domestic  cultivation  of  belladonna  in 
the  last  few  years  has  naturally  brought  the  problem  of  securing 
sufficient  good  seed  into  prominence.  Questions  regarding  the  time 
of  seed  collections,  the  methods  of  handling  the  seed  after  picking, 
and  the  effect  of  such  methods  on  the  vitality  of  the  seed  are  of 
prime  importance.  The  belladonna  plant  presents  special  problems 
in  this  respect  in  that  the  seed  is  borne  in  succulent  berries  which,  if 
gathered  in  the  fresh  state,  require  a  long  time  to  dry.  This  raises 
the  question  as  to  whether  the  seed  is  best  collected  when  the  berries 
are  ripe  and  fresh  or  when  they  have  dried  on  the  plant.  With  a 
view  toward  throwing  some  light  on  these  questions  the  following 
experiments  were  performed. 
Collection  of  the  Seed. 
Four  typical  first-year  belladonna  plants  were  staked  and  labelled 
as  Nos.  1,  2,  3,  and  4.    When  the  majority  of  the  berries  were  ripe 
1  Published  by  permission  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture. 
2  The  Germination  of  Belladonna  Seed.  This  Journal,  November,  1914, 
P-  483. 
