OF THE SEED. 785 



so'wn immediately or within a short time of their arriving at 

 maturity, or special means must be adopted for their preserva- 

 tion. Other seeds, such as those of a farinaceous nature, as 

 "Wheat and Cereal grains generally, or those with hard and bony 

 integuments, as many of theLeguminosse, frequently retain their 

 vitality for years. 



From the experiments of De Candolle, those of a Committee of 

 the British Association, and others, it would appear generally, 

 that the seeds of the Leguminosse and Malvaceae preserve their 

 vitality longest, while those of Composite, Cruciferee, Graminacea 

 soon lose their germinating power. Some exceptions, however, 

 to the above statement occur in these orders. 



Under particular circumstances, it seems certain, that seeds 

 may, and have preserved their vitality for a long period. Some 

 of the cases brought forward as illustrations of this capability of 

 seeds are, however, not supported by careful observations, as for 

 instance, that of the vitality of Wheat taken from Egyptian 

 mummies. There are no v/ell-authenticated instances of wheat 

 taken from mummies wliich have been untampered with, ge;:mi- 

 nating; indeed, all experiments (Dietrich, Lardet, Haberlandt) 

 tend to show that wheat loses its power of germination in from 

 three to seven years. We can, however, vouch for the folio wing case : 

 some seeds of l^ehivtbium in the herbarium (now in the British 

 Museum) of Sir Hans Sloane, who died in 1753, germinated in 

 1866: these must have been considerably over a centiu-y old. 

 Blr. Kemp, in the " Annals and Magazine of Natural History," has 

 narrated a still more remarkable case. This gentleman received 

 some seeds which were found upwards of twenty-five feet below 

 the surface of the earth, in the lowest layers of a sand-pit in 

 process of excavation. Upon being sown, about one-tenth germi- 

 nated and produced plants of Folygonum Convolvulus, Eumcx 

 Acetosella, and a variety of Atriplcx patula. All these seeds are 

 of a mealy or farinaceous nature. Mr. Kemp concluded from 

 various circumstances, that they were deposited at a period when 

 the valley of the Tweed was occupied by a lake ; if this be the 

 case, they must have retained their vitality during many centu- 

 ries, as it is certain that in the time of the Eomans, about 2,000 

 years ago, no lake existed there. It has long been noticed that 

 when a new soil is turned up, plants previously unknown in the 

 locality appear ; this seems to show that the seeds of such must 

 have lain dormant for frequently a very lengthened period. 



Freservation and Transxjortatlon of Seeds. — As many persons 

 frequently wish to send seeds to a distance, a few words on the 

 best means of preserving them for that purpose will doubtless 

 be acceptable to our readers. When seeds are enclosed in hard 

 or dry pericarps, they should be preserved and transported in 

 them. This is the case with those of many Leguminous and 

 Coniferous plants. When the pericarps are soft or liable to 

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