FLOWERS OF THE HOLY LAND. 31 



of the South. And yet, under careful examination, its fibre 

 was found to be equal, if not superior, and seeds transplanted 

 to a healthful soil, under proper management, have yielded 

 pods of triple size.* 



Slender and feeble stalks of grain, that droop on the plains 

 and hills near Esdraelon or the plain of Jezrael, will spring 

 into vigorous life and bear fourfold when taken to other places; 

 and seeds from ordinary crops, which we found in the horse- 

 trough of some poor Arabs, brought forth sumptuously when 

 transplanted to our own gardens in America. Grapevine-plants 

 from the mountains of Lebanon, which in their native hills 

 bore bunches weighing but two to three pounds, the season after 

 their removal to proper soils were covered with bunches the 

 weights of \vhich w r ere seven to eight pounds. 



Closely allied to these are other facts. The mysterious life 

 that dwells within a seed sometimes remains within it through 

 many ages, until all other life that existed when that seed was 

 born has departed. I have in my possession some seeds of corn 

 which are the produce of a few grains taken from a catacomb 

 in Egypt. These grains were buried more than three thousand 

 years ago, and yet when planted in the usual method proved 

 that life was not extinct, but was simply sleeping in its silent 

 tomb through those long ages till it was waked from its stupor 

 by energetic influences in the earth into which the cram was 



J 



put. During that time the very nature of the soil of Egypt had 

 undergone a change, and those little seeds had outlived the in 

 gredients of that soil in which three thousand years ago they had 



* See &quot; Palestine, Past and Present,&quot; p. 305. 

 5 



