142 DE. J. SALTER ON THE VITALITY OE SEEDS. 



Lysimachia vulgaris does not grow within four or six miles of 

 the spot ; Epilobium hirsutum two or three miles ; and Centaur ea 

 calcitrapa is scarcely known in the county, and certainly not 

 within ten miles of Poole. 



Now remembering that none of these plants grew either on the 

 shore around the spot, nor even within miles distant; remem- 

 bering too that they were the sole occupants of this new-made 

 land, and that the ordinary shore plants, growing in abundance 

 only a few feet from its edges, were not to be seen on it, and 

 further, that this abnormal vegetation showed itself the very next 

 spring, even only a few weeks after it was completed, it must, 

 I think, be conceded, that the seeds were in the mud at the time 

 it was spread upon the shore ; and that idea is still further sus- 

 tained because a very possible explanation suggests itself, which 

 would sufficiently account for the presence of the seeds of the 

 plants named, in the situation from which the. mud was obtained. 

 The mud was collected in the main channel about midway be- 

 tween the head and the mouth of the harbour. At the head of 

 the harbour two rivers pour their waters into it, the river Frome 

 and the river Piddle. These rivers take their origin in the western 

 parts of the county of Dorset, and in their course pass through 

 districts having every variety of soil and capable of furnishing 

 vegetation of great diversity ; on their banks, moreover, two of 

 the species I have mentioned (Lysimachia and Epilobium) grow 

 in profusion. 



Is it too much to suppose that the seeds from which these plants 

 sprung had fallen into the rivers in various parts of their course, 

 had gone with their waters into the harbour, and ultimately 

 reached the position from which the mud and they had been col- 

 lected? That explanation appears to me to be very probably 

 correct ; but whether it be received or not, the more important 

 point, — that a variety of seeds had been for a period, probably 

 considerable, at the bottom of Poole Harbour, soaking in water as 

 salt as that of the ocean, had retained their vitality till brought 

 under the influence of air and rain and warmth, and had then pro- 

 duced healthy vegetation — that is a point which I think cannot be 

 disputed. 



