760 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



abode of Father Mersenne, who was the 

 friend of the most learned men in Europe, 

 and was pleased to be the centre of their 

 mutual visits. Messieurs Gassendi, Des- 

 cartes, Hobbes, Roberval, Pascal (father 

 and son), Blondel, and some others, met at 

 this place. The assemblies were more reg- 

 ularly held at M. de Montmort's, Master of 

 Request in Parliament, and afterward at 

 M. Thevenot's. A few foreign visitors to 

 Paris were present at these meetings. . . . 

 It is possible that these Paris assemblies 

 have given birth to several academies in the 

 rest of Europe. However, it is certain that 

 the English gentlemen who created the 

 Royal Society had traveled in France, and 

 had visited at Montmort's and Thevenot's. 

 When they were again in England they 

 held meetings at Oxford, and kept on prac- 

 tising the exercises to which they had been 

 accustomed in France. The rule of Crom- 

 well was beneficial to these meetings. 

 These English gentlemen, secretly attached 

 to their legitimate lord, and unwilling to 

 take any part in public affairs, were very 

 glad to find an occupation which would 

 give them an opportunity of living far from 

 London without being suspected by the 

 Protector. The Society remained in this 

 state up to the time when Charles II., hav- 

 ing resumed the kingly office, brought it to 

 London, confirmed it by his royal power, 

 and gave it privileges. So Charles II. re- 

 warded the sciences which had lent an easy 

 pretext for keeping the faith toward him." 



Vitality of Seeds. Two years ago a few 

 peas, in a very dry and hard state, were 

 found in a sarcophagus containing a mum- 

 my, in the course of certain excavations 

 going on in Egypt. The idea was conceived 

 of testing the vitality of these peas, buried 

 as they had been for thousands of years. 

 Three of them were planted, which grew 

 and produced enough to cover, in the year 

 following, a considerable field. Some of 

 of the stalks reached a height of more 

 than six feet, and attained a size which was 

 altogether extraordinary, and a strength 

 which rendered them self-supporting. The 

 flowers were white and rose-colored, and of 

 delicious freshness. The pods were grouped 

 on either side of the stalk, in a sort of circu- 

 lar zone toward the top, and not regularly 



distributed throughout the plant, as in the 

 common pea. It is believed by those who 

 have examined this ancient pea and tested 

 its edible qualities that it belongs to the 

 family of the ordinary pea of our gardens, 

 but that it is a special variety distinguished 

 by the characteristics above mentioned in 

 regard to the form of the stalk and the dis- 

 position of the pods. 



In corroboration of the fact that seeds 

 will retain their vitality for an indefinite pe- 

 riod when embedded deep in the earth, Prof, 

 von Heldreich, of Athens, Greece, states 

 that on the removal of the mass of slag ac- 

 cumulated in working the Laurium silver- 

 mines, some fifteen hundred years ago, a 

 quantity of a species of fflaucium, or horn- 

 poppy, has made its appearance ; and, what 

 is remarkable, it proves to be a new and un- 

 described species to which the name Glau- 

 cium serpieri has been given. Prof. Niven, 

 of the Hull Botanic Garden, England, in 

 further corroboration of the same fact, 

 mentions several instances of extraordinary 

 vitality of seeds, from his own observation, 

 and remarks that, " Doubtless the absence 

 of air, an equable and unvarying condition 

 as regards moisture and temperature, and 

 above all the complete neutralization of the 

 physical influence of the sunlight, consti- 

 tute the means by which Nature exercises a 

 preservative power in seeds as astounding 

 as it is interesting." 



Tp the above might be added the fact so 

 well kr.own to the farmers of Monmouth 

 County, New Jersey, that the green-sand 

 marl sown upon lands almost sterile " brings 

 in white clover" (Trifolium rejxns) where 

 it was not known before. 



Reecit Observations of the Planet Venus. 



Some eight years ago Prof. C. S. Lyman 

 communicated to the American Journal of 

 Science a brief notice of some observations 

 made on Venus when near her inferior con- 

 junction in 1866. So far as appears, the 

 planet was then for the first time seen as a 

 very delicate luminous ring. An opportu- 

 nity of repeating these observations pre- 

 sented itself on the occasion of the recent 

 transit, and Prof. Lyman has another com- 

 munication upon the subject in the same 

 journal. " On Tuesday, December 8th," 

 he writes, "Venus was again in close prox- 



