THE LATENT VITALITY OF SEEDS. 111 



thickly shaded spots, destitute of all other vegetation except the 

 moss that carpets the surface of the soil. Holes are dug under 

 this moss, from which the earth is taken at depths successively 

 of eight, sixteen, and twenty- four centimetres. The specimens 

 taken from these several depths are cultivated separately. The 

 cultivations, prolonged for more than three months, have all ulti- 

 mately given rise to plants the seeds of which must of neces- 

 sity have remained under the earth for a greater or less length 

 of time. 



M. Peter has carefully indicated in detail the plants that cor- 

 responded to each of the specimens of earth on which he operated. 

 It resulted from the experiments that the specimens of earth from 

 very old forests gave plants of the woods, while those from forests 

 of more recent date yielded species the nature of which was mani- 

 festly related to the previous disposition of the soil that is, 

 plants of the fields or the meadows, according as forestation had 

 replaced one or the other of these methods of cultivation. While 

 he is extremely reserved as to the probable duration of the abode 

 of the seeds in the soil, M. Peter concludes in these words : " Al- 

 though the experiments in cultivation just described do not fur- 

 nish a solution to the question of the length of time during which 

 seeds at rest preserve their faculty of germinating, the conclusion 

 results from this demonstration that for many field and meadow 

 plants this duration may considerably exceed a half century." 



These researches of M. Peter's deserve careful attention, and it 

 is to be hoped that they will, without delay, be imitated in other 

 countries and different kinds of land, for they may reveal very 

 important facts in biology and prehistoric botanical geography. 

 Alphonse de Candolle * insisted a few years ago on the desira- 

 bility of making soundings beneath the snows of the Alps with 

 a view of recovering vestiges of the vegetation anterior to the 

 Glacial period. It is to be regretted that no one has carried out 

 this idea, for the facts I have just summarized almost permit us 

 to hope that research of this kind may lead to the recovery of 

 still vital seeds dating from very remote epochs. Translated for 

 the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique. 



THE managers of the Cornell University Experiment Station Extension 

 Work are able to draw comfort even from seemingly the most unpropitious 

 conditions. They represent that they have been greatly aided in their mis- 

 sion of extending the knowledge of plain facts and enforcing their mean- 

 ing " by the hard times and multitudes of bugs and special difficulties. 

 These things have driven people to thinking and to asking for infor- 

 mation." 



* Extract from the Archives des Sciences physiques et naturelles. 



