534 



Vitality of seeds. — Two years ago a few peas, iu a very dry and 

 hard state, were found in a sarcophagus containing a mummy, iu the 

 course of certain excavations going on in Egypt. The idea was con- 

 ceived of testing the vitality of these peas, buried as they had been for 

 thousands of years. Three of them were planted, which vegetated and 

 produced enough to cover, in the year following, a considerable field. 

 Some of the stalks grew to the height of more than six feet, and attained 

 a size which was altogether extraordinary, and a strength which rendered 

 them self-supporting. The flowers were white and rose-colored, and of 

 delicious freshness. The pods were grouped on either side of the stalk, 

 in a sort of circular zone toward the top, and not regularly distributed 

 throughout the plant, as in the common pea. It is believed by those 

 who have examined this ancient pea and tested its edible qualities that 

 it belongs to the family of the ordinary pea of our gardens, but that it 

 is a special variety distinguished by the characteristics above mentioned 

 in regard to the form of the stalk and the disposition of the pods. 



In corroboration of the fact that seeds will retain their vitality for an 

 indefinite period when embedded deep in the earth. Professor Von Hel- 

 dreich, of Athens, Greece, states that on the removal of the mass of slag 

 accumulated in working the Laurium silver-mines, some fifteen hundred 

 years ago, a quantity of a species of glaucium, or horn-poppy, has made 

 its appearance ; and, what is remarkable, it proves to be a new and un- 

 described species to which the name glaucium serpieri has been given. 

 Professor Niven, of the Hull Botanic Garden, England, iu further cor- 

 roboration of the same fact, mentions several instances of extraordinary 

 vitality of seeds, from his own observation, and remarks that, " Doubt- 

 less the absence of air, an equable and unvarying condition as regards 

 moisture and temperature, and above all the complete neutralization of 

 the physical influence of the sunlight, constitute the means by which 

 nature exercises a preservative power in seeds as astounding as it is 

 interesting." 



Disease-proof potatoes. — A committee of the Royal Society of 

 England reports that six varieties of potatoes entered for experiment 

 as disease- proof, and planted in twenty trial-plots in different parts of 

 the United Kingdom, have all failed to stand the test. The council 

 had reserved a power to enforce a penalty of £20 in each case of failure, 

 but the committee recommended that this penalty be not enforced. Pro- 

 fessor de Bary, in a communication to the committee, claims to have 

 ascertained definitely that this disease is not propagated by infected 

 tubers. He recommends that potatoes be not planted near or after 

 plants known to be suitable to the development of oospores of the Per- 

 onospora infestans. 



Test of seeds in Washington Terbitoey.— A correspondent in 

 Waukiakum County reports that seeds received from the Department of 

 Agriculture have proved very successful. " The flowers were splendid," 

 and " the Victoria rhubarb had stalks an inch in diameter early iu Sep- 

 tember. One mammoth pumj)kin weighed 122 pounds." 



The roller against drought. — Our correspondent in Stearns 

 County, Minnesota, reports that while wheat generally averages about 

 14 bushels per acre the past season, his own averages 20, and is satisfied 

 that the difference in his favor is mainly owing to a prevention ot injury 

 from drought by thoroughly rolling the land. 



The world's production and consumption of paper. — The fol- 

 lowing statistics of paper-making are given on the authority of Eudel, of 

 Vienna, Austria : It ai)»ears that there are 3,960 paper-manufacturers in 



