Seed morphology, germination and seedlings growth of Acacia auriculiformis were studied. The experiment was conducted in the nursery of Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh. Matured seeds of the species were collected from healthy trees of road side plantation from different areas of Khulna District, Bangladesh and treated with five pre-sowing treatments (control, immersion in cold water, immersion in hot water, scarification with sand paper and immersion in concentrated H 2 SO 4 ). The average length, breadth and thickness were found to be (0.58±0.017) cm, (0.44±0.007) cm and (0.20±0.089) cm, respectively. Germination was conducted in polybags with a mixture of top soil, coconut husk, coarse sand, and fine sand in a ratio of 3:4:1:1. Results reveal that pre-sowing treatments influences the germination rates of seeds that significantly increase the percentage germination compared with those in control (43%) and cold water treatment (52%). The highest germination success rate was found 83% in hot water treatment followed by 78% in scarification with sand paper, and 75% with immersion in H 2 SO 4 . Germination started from 7 to 12 days and completed between 28 and 35 days period in all treatments. ANOVA showed the significant difference (p<0.05) among the treatments in seed germination, but no significant difference among treatment with regard to starting day, closing day and total germination period. In case of height and diameter growth, seedlings originated from the seeds with hot water treatment shows significantly higher in wet season (from May to July).Hot water treatment can be recommended on seed germination of the species in rural Bangladesh.

To observe the effect of different concentrations of citric acid, sugar and water on the postharvest performance i.e. vase life, neck bending and number of open florets of tuberose and gladiolus, freshly harvested cut flowers were collected and pretreated for 24 hours with the preservative solutions prepared with different concentrations of citric acid and different levels of sugar. The pretreated flowers were kept in distilled water. Water from different sources (tap water, natural water and distilled water) was used to preserve untreated sticks of tuberose and gladiolus. Flowers pretreated with 2 g L-1 citric acid and 40 g L-1 sugar performed better. Water sources had no significant effect on postharvest performances of the cut flowers.