^ 310 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



few years ago, as to what truth there might be in the popular belief, 

 according to which this ancient wheat will not only germinate after the 

 lapse of three thousand years, but produce ears of extraordinary size 

 and beauty. The question was left undecided ; but Figari-Bey's paper, 

 addressed to the Egyptian Institute at Alexandria, contains some facts 

 which appear much in favor of a negative solution. One kind of wheat 

 which Figari-Bcy employed for his experiments had been found in Up- 

 per Egypt, at the bottom of a tomb at Medinet-Aboo. There were 

 two varieties of it, both pertaining to those still cultivated in Egypt. 

 The form of the grains had not changed ; but their color, both within 

 and without, had become reddish, as if they had been exposed to smoke. 

 On being sown in moist ground, under the usual pressure of the atmos- 

 phere, and at a temperature of 25 degrees (Reaumur), the grains be- 

 came soft, and swelled a little during the first four days ; on the seventh 

 day their tumefaction became more, apparent with an appearance of 

 maceration and decomposition ; and on the ninth day this decomposition 

 was complete. No trace of germination could be discovered during all 

 this time. Figari-Bey obtained similar negative results from grains of 

 wheat found in other sepulchres, and also on barley proceeding from 

 the same source ; so that there is every reason to believe that the ears 

 hitherto ostensibly obtained from mummy wheat proceeded from grain 

 accidentally contained in the mould into which the former was sown. 



THE CONICAL GROWTH OF TREES. 



If we look at the stem and branches of a tree in winter, when de- 

 prived of its summer leaves, we shall see at once that it is constructed 

 on the principle of a cone ; for the main stem of the tree is broadest at 

 the base, and gradually decreases in thickness toward the extremities 

 of its branches. Any branch in the place where a side-branch origi- 

 nates, is thicker than the side-branch ; so also this side-branch is thick- 

 er than the branchlet which it produces, and in this manner *he thick- 

 ness of the main stem steps, as it were, away by degrees from branch 

 to branch, until at length it loses itself in the fine branches of the 

 youngest generation of shoots, or the most recent growths. It is well 

 known that the cone is the stablest structure in nature, and the tree 

 may be very properly regarded as an arborescent cone. 



If a transverse section of a young beech-tree is examined, it will be 

 found to consist of a number of concentrical and almost circular beds 

 or layers of wood, ensheathing one another about a common centre, 

 which is occupied by a canal of pith, the whole being covered by the 

 bark formed on the outside of the stem. The longitudinal section, on 



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the contrary, shows that the stem is composed of a series of superposed 

 and hollow elongated cones, the old conical growth, or woody layers of 

 the last and previous seasons, forming a firm foundation for the new 

 conical layers of the next and succeeding years. 



The conical growth of the tree is the result of the conical formation 

 of the first year's shoot, which is the foundation of the subsequent an- 

 nual additions of w<?od and bark ; for as these are deposited in strata 

 which lie parallel with the wood and bark of the first year's shoot, the 

 conical form of the superposed layers is necessarily retained. 



Growth in length and growth in thickness must therefore be regard- 

 ed as the result of one and the same vegetative cause, namely, the 



