Cassia seeds which belong to the family Leguminosae
usually exhibit seed coat imposed dormancy which may
be due to impermeability of testa to water (Rolston, 1978).
The most common cause of delay in seed germination is
the blocking of water entry into the seed (Cavanagh,
1980). For germination to start, the impermeable seed
coat must be rendered permeable. Hence pre-sowing
treatment of cassia seeds was deemed necessary and
need definite treatments for breaking seed dormancy
(Nalawadi et al., 1977; Ramamoorthy et al., 2005).
Therefore, in the present investigation, three experiments
were conducted at KISR for C. nodosa and C. fistula
seeds with a view to determine treatments that promote
maximum germination and produce superior quality
seedlings. The objective of the study was to establish
changes if any, occurring in the seed coat which increase
seed coat permeability and ensure availability of moisture
in the embryo to trigger the process of germination.