SOME STUDIES ON THE GERMINATION OF THE SEED OF ORYZA SATIVA. 113 
found to be more injurious than in the liquid state. The air-driel seeds of 
Pisum sativum are killed by steeping for 217 days in chloroform gas, where- 
as the seed in the liquid chloroform still germinated as much as 16%. 
After 272 days in the gas, none of the desiccated sceds germinated, whereas 
of those in the liquid 24% still germinated. He found that the seed cover- 
ing acts as a protective in a high degree, but the reserve materials (oils 
and fats) diminished with the centripetal direction from the seed by the 
prolonged treatment in ether and chloroform, showing that the reagents finally 
permeated. 
BECQUEREL (1907) observed on the other hand that the desiccated seed 
covering is impermeable to the air, various gases, alcohol, ether and chloroform, 
but the moistened seed coat is easily permeable and the toxic gases destroy 
the vitality of the seed within a short time. He came to the conclusion 
that the life of the embryo in the seeds of many Phanerogams can be con- 
served indefinitely by keeping them in a perfectly desiccated condition. 
SCHUBERT (1910) extended KurzweEtty’s work and showed further that 
poisonous substances, such as chloroform, ethyl alcohol, and amyl alcohol 
at their respective boiling temperatures are far more toxie than at the 
room temperature to the desiccated seed of Pisum sativum, Sinapis alba, 
Trifolium incarnatum, Helianthus annuus, Ervum lens, and Setaria italica. 
He conducted the experiments in such a way as to preclude the possible 
dissolution of the reserve materials from the seed, and arrived at results 
which show that the resistance of the seed against the action of reagents 
is due to indiffusibility of the seed coat to them, and is not concerned with 
the dissolution of the reserve material. The quicker the reagents penetrate, 
the sooner the vitality of the seed is lost. 
ScHROEDER (1910) approached the subject from a practical point of view, 
and recommends the use of solution of silver nitrate instead of mercuric chloride 
for the sterilization of Grammineae seeds, for the selective-permeable mem- 
brane of the grains is impermeable to silver nitrate but easily permeable to 
mercuric chloride. Ransom (1912) observed that coffeine added in the pro- 
portion from 1% to 0.01% to water in which seeds are sown, exerts a 
powerful effect in retarding germination and growth. If 1% is present, 
germination is completely inhibited. Smurz (1913) confirmed the findings of 
