SEED. 55 



the purpose of finding a constant supply of crude 

 nutriment and becoming roots. 



Unless these conditions are maintained, seeds 

 cannot germinate ; and, consequently, an ex- 

 ])osure to light is fatal to their embryo, because 

 oxygen will not be absorbed in sufficient quan- 

 tity to stimulate the vital powers of the embryo 

 into action, for the purpose of parting with it 

 again, by the decomposition of the carbonic 

 acid that has been formed during its accumu- 

 lation. 



The length of time which seeds preserve 

 their power of growing, or vitality as it is call- 

 ed, differs in different plants. Some lose their 

 vitality in a single year, others preserve it for 

 many years — the best authenticated account 

 of this latter power is of some raspberry trees 

 now growing in the garden of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, which were raised from 

 seeds taken out of the stomach of a skeleton 

 found in one of the tumuli or ancient tombs at 

 Dorchester England, thirty feet helow the sur- 

 face. With the skeleton were found some coins 

 of the Emperor Hadrian — so that they must 

 have been sixteen or seventeen hundred years 

 old. The raspberry has also vegetated from 

 seeds taken from raspberry jam, in this case 



