MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 43 
HOW LONG CAN A SEED LIVE? 
Probably no question concerned with plants has had so many 
contradictory and inaccurate answers as that dealing with 
the length of time a seed may retain its vitality. The wide 
circulation of such fables as the supposed germination of 
“mummy wheat’’ has left the impression, in the mind of 
the general public at least, that there is practically no limita- 
tion to the persistence of life when it is once enclosed in the 
seed-coats of a plant. The origin of this myth seems to be 
that about 1840 a dozen grains of wheat were sent to England 
with the statement that they had been taken from a vase found 
in one of the ancient tombs which contained a mummy. These 
seeds were sown, and one plant was said to have been raised 
which bore two poor ears. Just where the mistake occurred 
cannot be stated, but there is no doubt that the grain which 
germinated either never came from Egypt or was of recent 
origin and had not been buried for centuries. Wheat and 
other seeds have frequently been found in ancient Egyptian 
tombs, but a microscopic examination of such grain invariably 
shows that the embryo has acquired a brownish color and is 
practically destroyed. In no case would it be possible for 
it to germinate. Actual experiments have proved that out of 
750 seeds of wheat stored under ideal conditions for 16 years 
only 8 per cent sprouted, and by the time the seed was from 
30 to 35 years old no germination would take place. 
Within the past year or two the daily press has given con- 
siderable space to the reported germination of morning-glory 
seed found in the hand of amummy. While the accounts vary, 
in some eases the seed being reported as that of an Egyptian 
pea, they are more or less in agreement in stating that the 
Secretary for the Society of Bibliographical Archaeology of 
London brought from Egypt to England 12 seeds (the same 
number as in the original mummy wheat story) found in the 
hand of a mummy of a young girl which was excavated from 
a tomb nearly 5,000 years old. All the seed germinated, and 
when the plants matured blue morning-glories (or sweet-peas) 
‘looking like a tiny Egyptian face’’ were produced. 
Unfortunately, efforts to verify the actual conditions under 
which the seed were found have failed and, for the present at 
least, the case will have to be classed with still another one 
where the seeds of oats were supposed to have germinated after 
