08 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



perfectly-formed but minute plant of its specific variety. It 

 seems probable that under suitable conditions the vitality of 

 most small seeds might be retained for an indefinite period, ex- 

 tending even to many centuries, as in the " mummy wheat,"" 

 the seeds thrown up from far below the earth's surface, or those 

 which, being largely diffused through the surface soil, vegetate 

 where they had been unknown for ages, when opened to the 

 sun's influence and supplied with appropriate stimulus, or when 

 the long-flooded upland produces swamp plants. 



The strength and continuance of this vital principle in seeds 

 depends on a great variety of circumstances in their production 

 and storing. Seeds imperfectly ripened or insufficiently dried, 

 as is not unfrequently the case with imported European seeds 

 and grains, even after they have passed through the process of 

 a moderate kiln-drying, though they may be of fine, plump ap- 

 pearance, yet will not, in general, bear keeping. Seeds that 

 have in any manner become damp and heated, or musty, are 

 risky or worthless ; or if kept in a very hot place in vessels or 

 packages through which evaporation goes on freely, or contin- 

 ued in it so long that the heat itself induces a change in the 

 chemical condition of the seed, they may lose the vital power. 

 Tables professing to give the various ages to which different 

 seeds may be kept are therefore of little value ; but, assuming 

 that seeds are well ripened and stored with ordinary care, most 

 kinds may be safely sown at five, and many at ten years old. 



As in trees checking the exuberance of growth induces dis- 

 position to fruitfulness, so it has come to be regarded as a 

 general rule that plants, particularly of the more luxuriant 

 kinds, if raised from seeds which have been kept a year or 

 two, run less to mere plant growth, and are more productive in 

 fruit or seed than those raised from new seeds. Upon this 

 theory cucumber and melon seeds intended for planting in 

 frames are carefully kept for many years by persons curious in 

 such matters, and sometimes, when for any reason it is desired 

 to use them prematurely, artificial drying is resorted to as an 

 equivalent. 



In most seeds, however, age seems only, or at least chiefly, 

 to affect the length of the period required for their germina- 



