BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 321 
outside influences; for, as Knop has already suggested, if the 
seeds were not encased in armor the boiling water would quickly 
coagulate the albumen and destroy the life of the seed. Doubtless 
the boiling water would destroy the seeds if they were thrown into 
it after being swollen in water at the ordinary temperature of 
the air. 
It may be here said that Nobbe tried the effect of soaking 
clover-seeds in alcohol, and in ether, for the purpose of removing 
any waxy or resinous covering which might be supposed to resist 
water, but he found that the germination of the seeds was not ac- 
celerated by the treatment with these solvents; whence he argued 
that the resisting power probably depends on the anatomical 
structure of the outer covering of the seeds. In view of the 
** opening” power of boiling water, however, it may perhaps still 
be asked whether some weak alkaline solvent might not perhaps 
hasten the softening and the germination of the seeds. It is con- 
ceivable, indeed, — though for various reasons it is not very 
probable, — that the well-known practical utility of dressings of 
~wood-ashes and of lime as applied to clover-fields may depend in 
some part on their facilitating the germination of dormant seeds. 
The common remark, that wood-ashes and lime bring in white 
clover, might seem to point to such a conclusion. One difficulty 
with the suggestion is that other potassic manures that are not 
alkaline, such as kelp and rock-weed, and the neutral potash-salts 
also, serve about as well as ashes. It might be urged also that, if 
the action of alkaline solutions favors the germination of clover- 
seeds, the biliary juices of animals should likewise do so. To 
which it may be replied that for aught that is known this may 
really be the case. That is to say, it is not unlikely that the 
germination of clover may actually be facilitated by the passage of 
the seeds through the intestines of animals, and that in the in- 
stances above noted, where the dung of animals has brought in 
clover, the unlocking of the seeds may perhaps have been one 
cause of the appearance of the plants in such abundance. 
Another practical point worthy of being studied is the belief held 
by some New England farmers that white-clover-seeds germinate 
best when they have never been separated from their chaff, but are 
sown with the husks still upon them. 
Beside clover, the endurance of the germinative power of 
charlock-seeds (Sinapis arvensis), when buried in the soil, has 
been repeatedly insisted upon by practical men, — with much jus- 
