72 VITALITY or SEEDS. [Muvch, 



Another plant which I had no opportunity of examining except 

 from dried specimens, was the Statice, which is so thick as to 

 form quite a turf-like border to the little Abbot's Cliff salt 

 marsh. Not feeling sure of its identity, I submitted it to my 

 correspondent, Monsieur Crepin, and he informs me that it is 

 the same as that which grows on the cliffs, the St. occidentalis, 

 Lloyd and Babington's Man. 4th ed., spathulata of the earlier 

 editions, and auriculafolia of Bentham, 



[The fair authoress of these lists of Kentish plants has just in- 

 timated that the species named Scle7'ochloa maritima and Arte- 

 misia maritima are misnamed. We are curious to learn what 

 are their generally received names.] 



VITALITY OF SEEDS. 

 Some Observations on the Vitality of Seeds. By George Jorden. 



The vitality of seeds is a subject highly interesting to the bo- 

 tanist, physiologist, agriculturist, and chemist. That the seeds of 

 some species of British plants under certain conditions will retain 

 their vitality in an embryal state for a great length of time is an 

 indisputable fact ; that plants are often found appearing and then 

 disappearing after considerable intervals of time in different lo- 

 calities, as I have oftentimes observed ; therefore botanists may 

 not consider that they have exhausted any locality of its botanical 

 treasures, for fresh denizens will occasionally make their appear- 

 ance to surprise us during our explorations. 



I have made repeated excursions annually over a limited area 

 of country for nearly sixty years, and occasionally even now find 

 fresh acquaintances greeting me, whose seeds have long lain in 

 repose until some meteorological influence or disturbance of the 

 earth's surface has bid them come forth and again fulfil their 

 destiny, so that we know not where they are reposing in or on 

 the earth's surface ; therefore we should be cautious when we cen- 

 sure botanists with giving erroneous statements in recording cer- 

 tain localities where they are not now to be found, but may at 

 some future period. 



The following I have frequently found where old hedges have 

 been removed, woods felled, wastes cultivated, and other disturb- 



