• . 



120 



September 30 and October i and 2, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 

 exhibited its installation of hving plants arranged to ilkistrate the 

 evolutionary development of the plant kingdom. Of the Garden 

 staff, Dr. Gunderscn served as committee on names, and Miss 

 Shaw and Air, Free acted as judges. 



The Froebcl Society, of Brooklyn, held its October meeting at 

 the Botanic Garden on the afternoon of the third. The program 



included 



an address by Dr. Gager on 



a 



The civic value of a 



botanic garden. '^ At the close of the address Dr. Graves con- 

 ducted the members through the conservatories, a severe rain 

 making the intended inspection of the grounds impracticable. 



TIic Alleged Gcrniination of Seeds from Mniumy Cases. — The 

 persistence of error is, perhaps, nowhere better illustrated than in 

 the oft-repeated story of the gernn'nation of seeds taken from 

 the cases of Egyptian nnninnies, and therefore two or three thou- 

 sand years old. Notwithstanding the experimental demonstra- 

 tion that the seeds of few, if any, known species retain their 

 vitality for more than 25 or 30 years at the outside, this story 

 of the germination of ''mummy wheat,"- and other seeds from 

 mummy cases has appeared' periodicall}^ in the public press. The 

 recent repetition of this story has called for an interesting ex- 

 planation in the July, 1921, issue of the Quarterly Summary of 

 the Royal Botanic Society of London. The following quotation 

 is from that article : 



In a newspaper a short while back there appeared a letter 

 from a correspondent referring to some seeds of oats which had 

 germinated after removal from a mummy 2,600 years old. As it 

 is a good example of mummy stories, and this Society had some- ' 

 thing to do with the spreading of it, it may be interesting to 

 Fellows. 



*' The particular mummy to which it refers was one presented 

 to the late John (Rob Roy) Macgregor of canoe fame. When 



50 years ago) he 



a 



Ul 



the 



course 



of his wanderings (this was 



reached Egy^pt, the Khedive, Ismail, presented him with an un- 

 opened mummy in its case. After he came back to England it 



