108 REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS. 



show the necessity in this, as in most pursuits, 

 of the valuable qualities of patience and perse- 

 verance which he must himself have possessed 

 in so great a degree, since of the seeds he sowed 

 he reckoned that one in a thousand came up 

 which was not a crab, and one in a thousand of 

 these became a good eating apple. 



78. There is one more subject, connected 

 with reproduction by seed, which is too curious 

 to be passed over; the wonderful tenacity of 

 vegetable life. This, indeed, is shown in the 

 plants themselves in many instances, such as 

 the enormous longevity of some trees, particu- 

 larly the oak, the yew, and some of foreign 

 growth,* but it seems even more extraordinary 

 as it exists in seeds. The latter will remain 

 torpid for many months or even years without 

 injury. Corn grains enclosed in the bandages 

 which envelope the mummies, are said to have 

 occasionally germinated, though most of them 

 seem to have lost their vitality. There is no- 

 thing improbable in the fact ; but as the Arabs, 

 from whom the mummies are commonly ob- 



* In the Appendix will be found translated a table 

 given by De Candolle of the presumed age of some cele- 

 brated trees (B.) 



