VITALITY OF SEEDS. 19 



of wheat and other seeds taken from the wrappings 

 of Egyptian mummies, or from the tombs in which 

 mummies were found. 



In a recent number of the Christian Union I 

 find this statement by Canon Wilberf orce, the great 

 English preacher: " I have seen beneath the micro- 

 scope a seed 3,000 years old start into instant 

 germination when touched with a drop of warm 

 water; so a human soul, long apparently lifeless, 

 begins to grow when touched with the water of 

 life." In the New York Voice, for March 27, 1890, 

 is the following, entitled " Seed Corn 4,000 years 

 Old." "During the season of 1889 a most remark- 

 able crop of corn was raised by David Drew, at 

 Plymouth, New Hampshire. In 1888, Mr. Drew 

 came into possession of some corn grains found 

 wrapped with a mummy in Egypt, supposed to be 

 4,000 years old. These were planted and grew. It 

 had many of the characteristics of real corn; the 

 leaves were alternate; it grew to be over six feet 

 high; the midribs were white; but the product of 

 the stock there is where the curious part came in. 

 Instead of growing in an ear like modern maize, it 

 hung in heavy clusters at the top, on spikelets; 

 there was no tassel, no silk, each sprig was thickly 

 studded with grain, each provided with a separate 

 husk, like wheat grains." [Evidently sorghum.] 



In the London Times for September, 1840, Mar- 



