30 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



surprised the cultivator by the appearance of plants 

 which he never sowed, and often, which were then 

 unknown to the country. This has arisen from ancient 

 seeds becoming deeply covered, and there remaining 

 inert, but yet retaining the principle of life. 'J'his 

 principle has been ascertained to be capable of existing 

 in this latent state for above two thousand years 

 unextinguished, and springing again into active vege- 

 tation as soon as planted in a congenial soil. It even 

 remains unimpaired in blighted corn, and will grow from 

 this as vigorously as from the perfect seed.* 



The practical use then to be made of such discov- 

 eries, is to learn another lesson of thankfulness and 

 confidence in God. We have only to watch how much 

 of the operations of vegetation the Creator still keeps, 

 as it were, in his own hand, to have a forcible commen- 



• At the Royal Institution in 1830, Mr. Houlton, produced a 

 bulbous root, which had been discovered in the hand of an 

 Egyptian Mummy, where it had remained about 2000 years. 

 On exposure to the atmosphere it germinated, and when planted 

 in earth, it grew with great rapidity. In boring for water, 

 earth has been brought from a depth of 360 feet ; and though 

 carefully covered with a hand-glass, has been in a short time 

 covered with vegetation. Sir T. Banks, raised in a hot-house, 

 from 80 blighted grains of wheat, 72 healthy plants of wheat. 

 — /S'ec fi". Turner's Sacred History of the World, Vol, l.p, 208. 



