34 POPULAR ERRORS. 



Michigan, buried weed seeds of different kinds for 

 several years and many of them when again brought 

 to light germinated. I buried seeds of corn, 

 beans and buckwheat five feet deep in sandy soil. 

 All were dead at the end of a year, though some 

 had first germinated. Nevertheless, cases are 

 known where seeds have retained their vitality in 

 the soil longer than they ordinarily do in the open 

 air. 



Henry Doubleday states in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle for 1885, page 854, that seeds of Lavatera 

 arborea continued to come up in his garden for 

 twenty years, though none were allowed to seed 

 there during that time. 



M. J. Berkley, in the same journal for 1863, page 

 1011, describes an abundant growth of "water- 

 cress, with a slight admixture of Ranunculus 

 aquaticus, and some grass " in the muck of a pond 

 which had been filled for 33 years. " The seed- 

 lings burst out from the edge of the soil where it 

 had been cut through with the spade, taking their 

 origin beneath the superincumbent rubbish." The 

 seedlings were growing three feet below the general 

 surface at the time of observation. 



C. M. Hovey, of Boston, said in the London 

 Garden, 1880, Volume XVIL, page 84: "I have a 

 spot of peaty ground deeply trenched and filled in 

 with brush just twenty years ago. It was then 



