Bnut
If they are already dried, don't get your hopes up. JM seed needs to be treated while fresh from the tree. If it is overly dried it will be difficult to impossible to germinate. 90 days of cold moist pretreatment is what it needs. JM is somewhat unusual in that it doesn't need a warm period following the moist/cold pretreatment if the seed is fresh. It will begin to germinate in the fridge sometime between 60 and 90 days. When it begins to germinate, you can take it out and sow it all, or remove it as it germinates.
If none has begun to germinate after 90 days in the fridge, you are in trouble. Take it out and give it a warm/moist pretreatment. This is keeping it at 70F (easiest to do in a ziplock bag) for another 90 days. It may begin to germinate, but probably not. At the end of 90 days, if it hasn't begun to germinate, put it back in the fridge for another 90 days of cold/moist. If no germination at the end of this period, it probably isn't viable. You can open a few seeds with your concave cutters to examine the kernel. It should be creamy white and solid. If it is brown, soft, watery, or missing entirely (it happens), then the seed is not viable. I keep opening seeds until I find a good one. If I get to twenty without a viable seed, I throw the lot out.
I once germinated hybrid Acer palmatum seed over a two year period of alternating treatments described above to get them all to germinate. I never want to do that again. Don't buy seed, unless you know that it has been picked fresh from the tree and immediately sealed without any artificial drying. It has taken me hundreds of dollars in seed to learn this lesson.
Brent
EvergreenGardenworks.com
see our blog at
http://BonsaiNurseryman.typepad.com