LONGEVITY OF SEEDS. 259 



CHAPTER XI. 



OF GERMINATION. 



THE action of the seed is confined to that phenomenon 

 which occurs when the embryo that the seed contains is first 

 called into life, and which is named germination. 



If seeds are sown as soon as they are gathered, they gene- 

 rally vegetate, at the latest, in the ensuing spring ; but, if 

 they are dried first, if often happens that they will lie a whole 

 year or more in the ground without altering. This character 

 varies extremely in different species. The power of preserv- 

 ing their vitality is also variable : some will retain their 

 germinating powers many years, in any latitude, and under 

 almost any circumstances. Melon seeds have been known 

 to grow when 41 years old, Maize 30 years, Rye 40 years, the 

 Sensitive plant 60 years, Kidneybeans 100 years. Clover 

 will come up from soil newly brought to the surface of the 

 earth, in places in which no clover had been previously 

 known to grow in the memory of man, and I have at this 

 moment three plants of Raspberries before me, which have 

 been raised in the garden of the Horticultural Society from 

 seeds taken from the stomach of a man, whose skeleton was 

 found thirty feet below the surface of the earth, at the bottom 

 of a barrow which was opened near Dorchester. He had been 

 buried with some coins of the Emperor Hadrian, and it is 

 therefore probable that the seeds were sixteen or seventeen 

 hundred years old. 



The chemical action of seeds has been well explained by 

 De Candolle, to whom, however, the recent observations by 

 Edwards and Colin were unknown. 



Water, heat, and atmospheric air (or at least oxygen) are 

 the conditions without which germination cannot take place. 



