ihe germinative Faculty of Seeds. 209 
much more certainly, when sown immediately, or a short 
time after their maturity, than in spring: several, however, 
sprout also in the latter season, but they will not if kept 
much longer. The inodprous seeds, the grasses, a great 
part of the cruciferous and the leguminous plants, those of 
the cucurbitaceous and of the cold and milky plants, those 
which are contained in cones or capsules, or surrounded 
‘with a succulent pulp, preserve their germinative and sound 
quality from two to eight years. . : 
«© Others, and these are but few in number, keep still 
longer, and it is a kind of phenomenon when we see the 
seeds of the sensitive plant and Goyava germinating at the 
expiration of twenty or thirty years.” i 
Thus, according to M. Dumont de Courset, twenty or 
thirty years would be the longest term for the duration of 
this faculty. But in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlil. 
Mr. Martin Triewalds relates that some melon seeds found 
in 1762, in the collection of Lord Mortimer, with an en- 
velope dated 1700, were sown, and gave fiowers and very 
good fruit. In the xliiid volume of the same work, Mr. Roger 
Gale informs Mr. Collinson that several melon seeds kept 
for thirty-three years also bore excellent flowers and fruits. 
To the above | shall add what has been communicated 
to me by M. Desfontaines. In arranging the seeds of the 
Museum of Natural History he found a haricot (French 
bean) which belonged to the Herbarium of Tournefort, and 
when sown it gave flowers and fruit. Besides, we know from 
Linnzus, that the seeds of the leguminous plants preserve 
their germinatiye power for a long time. This variation in 
the duration of this faculty has not escaped the notice of 
botanists: but they have not yet elucidated, by experiments 
repeated upon all the families and upon a great number of 
genera, this phenomenon in vegetation, nor determined 
month after mouth, and year by year, the species of seeds 
which successively lose their germinative faculty, as well 
as those which preserve it for a long time. It was with 
this view that I attempted a tedious experiment, of which 
the following is the result. . 
Forty-five years ago Bernard de Jussieu made a collection 
of the sceds of all the families, and of a great number of 
the genera. This collection still exists with M. Antony 
Laurence de Jussieu, who kindly permitted me to take 
what I pleased. The seeds are all inclosed in small boxes, 
and wrapped in a paper upon which Bernard de Jussieu 
bas written their names. 1 mention these circumstances, 
to show how old they were, and because it is necessary to 
Vol. 42. No. 195. Sept. 1813. 0 know 
