222 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MARCH 
25, 1903, the writer proposed the name Asfzliopsts for the plant 
described in the body of the same contribution, p. 106, as A/famtrania, 
n. gen. of Verbesineae (Compositae). Professor Theo. D. A. Cockerell, 
of Colorado Springs, has most courteously called my attention to the 
fact that no binomial was given under Aspiliopsis. This may be formed 
as follows: Aspiliopsis pachyphylla, n. comb. A/famirania pachyphylla 
Greenm. Proc. Am. Acad. 39: 106. 1903.—J. M. GREENMAN, Gray 
Herbarium, Cambridge, Mass: 
VITALITY OF SEEDS. 
THE statement in the GazeTre for February by J. W. T. Duvel con- 
cerning the preservation of seeds buried in the soil reminds me of some 
tests I made years ago, reporting the results in the Proceedings of the 
Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science for 1894. In Sep- 
tember 1882 I gathered and shelled 50 heads of red clover from each 
of five plants, and kept them in two-ounce bottles, each lot by itself. 
On June 7, 1894, I tested 50 seeds of each for vitality, and again on 
June 23, 1894, I tested another set of 50 seeds each. The average of 
the two lots of all seeds was 35.8 per cent. of living seeds. Of the 
hundred taken from one of the bottles 66 seeds germinated ; while of 
those from another bottle only 4 seeds out of the hundred germinated. 
In these cases some of the seeds of each lot retained vitality for nearly 
twelve years. 
In the Pacsas of the same society for 1899, I reported the 
results of tests of the vitality of seeds of weeds buried by me in “clean’ 
dirt in bottles for twenty years. The seeds germinated very unevenly. 
I name the species of seeds of which some germinated: Amaranthus 
retroflexus, Brassica nigra, Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Lepidium virgin- 
icum, Anthemis cotula, Malva rotundifolia, Oenothera biennis, Poly- 
gonum hydropiper, Portulaca oleracea, Rumex crispus, Stellaria 
media, Verbascum thapsus. None of the following germinated: 
Ambrosia artemisiaefolia, Erechthites hieracifolia, Euphorbia macu- 
lata, Plantago major, Setaria glauca, Trifolium repens, Bromus secali- 
nus, Lychnis githago. I give the names of seeds by which they were 
known when buried; at the time of their resurrection the names of 
some of them had been changed! —W. J. BEAL, Agricultural College, 
Michigan. 
