NATURAL HISTORY. 



491 



lion in the duration of this faculty 

 has not escaped the notice of bota- 

 nists ; but they have not yet eluci- 

 dated, by experiments repeated 

 upon all the families and upon a 

 great number of genera, this phae- 

 nomenon in vegetation, nor deter- 

 mined month after month, and 

 year by year, the species of seeds 

 which successively lose their ger- 

 minative faculty, as well as those 

 which preserve it for a long time. 

 It was with this view that I attempt- 

 ed a tedious experiment, of which 

 the following is the result : — 



Forty-five years ago Bernard de 

 Jussieu made a collection of the 

 seeds of all the families, and of a 

 great number of the genera. This 

 collection still exists with M. An- 

 tony Laurence de Jussieu, who 

 kindly permitted me to take what 

 I pleased. The seeds are all en- 

 closed in small boxes, and wrapped 

 in a paper upon which Bernard de 

 Jussieu has written their names. 

 I mention these circumstances, to 

 show how old they were, and be- 

 cause it is necessary to know how 

 these seeds have been preserved, 

 because by taking particular care 

 they might be preserved still long- 

 er from the contact of the air. 



At the beginning of May, 1809, 

 I sowed on a common bed 350 

 species of seeds, of all families and 

 of a great number of genera. I 

 shall not minutely enter into the 

 particulars required for this expe- 

 riment, which lasted eighteen 

 months, but shall give the results 

 of my observations. 



The following, in the first place, 



. arc the names of the seeds whicli 



came up. 



Cannacorus. 



Cannacorub A- 

 nicricanus minor. 



1 



Canna Linn. 



Asphodelus albus. 



Ceba viticis folio, caudice acu- 

 leato. Bombax 1. 



Fhaseolus semine tamarindi. 



Anagyris fetida. 



Galega frutescens, flore purpu- 

 reo, foliis sericeis. 



Ptelea trifoliata. 



Paliurus aculeatus. 



Ceanothus Americanus. 



Making in all ten species. As 

 the second year since the sowing 

 has not passed, it is possible that 

 some of the seeds will still come 

 up during the second or third year. 

 Among these ten species,we ought 

 to remark the two cannae and the 

 asphodeli, the seeds of which are 

 furnished with a large perisperma, 

 which does not seem to have injur- 

 ed their preservation : for we ge- 

 nerally observe that the seeds fur- 

 nished with a perisperma, like 

 those of the umbelliferous plants, 

 the rubiaceae, &c. speedily lose 

 their germinative faculty. 



In making this experiment, I 

 observed that in many seeds the 

 embryo was preserved in a good 

 state, that it swelled like that of 

 new seeds at the moment of ger- 

 mination, when the humidity and 

 heat are first developed ; but that 

 it perished some time afterwards, 

 because the cotyledons being obli- 

 terated could not transmit to it the 

 juices necessary to its develope- 

 ment. 



In order to establish a point of 

 comparison between these old 

 seeds and fresh ones, I sowed upon 

 the same bed about 300 species of 

 seeds gathered the preceding year 

 for theMuseum of Natural History, 

 and chosen as much as possible 

 from am,ong the same genera as the 

 old. Being desirous of knowing 

 the period which both kinds took 



