See Germination. It is a very unfounded idea, that by steeping seeds in certain solutions the vigour and fecundity of the plants to which they give birth might be promoted. A certain degree of heat, oxygen gas, and water, are all the requisites for germination, - and until this process has commenced, no liquid but water at common temperatures will pass through the integuments of a seed. So soon as germination has commenced, this power to exclude foreign fluids ceases, but the organs starting into activity - the radicle and the plumule - are so delicate, that the weakest 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 absolutely dependent, themselves, for their very existence upon the seed-leaves, and if these are removed the plant either makes no further advance, or altogether perishes. Many years since I tried various menstrua to facilitate the germination of seeds, but, with the exception of those which promoted the decomposition of water, and the consequent more abundant evolution of oxygen, I found none of any efficiency.

As to keeping the seeds in saline solutions until they germinated, I never, certainly, carried the experiments so far as that, and I 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 Hartwegii were made to germinate in a weak solution of phosphate of ammonia. - Johnson's Gardeners' Almanack.