VITALITY OF SEEDS. 15 



by the ancients, not only with regard to plants, but 

 concerning many forms of animal life also. The 

 advance of science, especially by means of the 

 microscope, has overthrown the argument for spon- 

 taneous generation, and there is hardly an intelli- 

 gent person in any civilized community to-day who 

 does not know that every plant, whether large or 

 small, originates from a seed, or germ. But this 

 conclusion renders it impossible to account for the 

 appearance of new forms of vegetation in such 

 cases as have been referred to unless we can show 

 the origin of the seed. The difficulty of account- 

 ing for the origin of the seed from any plants living 

 in the vicinity made it seem probable that 

 the seeds from which they sprang were trans- 

 ported to the locality many years before and have 

 retained their vitality by being protected by the 

 soil and a covering of leaves, until the removal of 

 the forest, or perhaps the burning of the protecting 

 leaves, admitted the sun and air and furnished the 

 conditions for germination. Other causes besides 

 the removal of forests have furnished new condi- 

 tions which have brought into being new forms of 

 vegetation. I have in mind the case of an old farm- 

 house which had stood for at least 200 years and 

 which was pulled down, when there appeared on 

 the site a thick growth of Charlock or Wild Rape, a 

 plant wholly new to the neighborhood. 



