480 Principles of Gardening 



been used for other purposes, when again brought into cultivation, 

 a great number of annual plants have sprung up : also, in pulling 

 down old buildings, seeds capable of germinating have been 

 found in the clay which was used in building ; and even 

 some sorts of grain, which were found in the Egyptian mum- 

 mies, and must have been several thousand years old, are said 

 to have germinated (??). The seed of Fer6?iica /zederaefolia L. 

 is the most remarkable in this respect; for, sometimes, after 

 heavy rains, it springs up on the surface of fields, where pre- 

 viously no trace of this plant was to be found, so that it has 

 been supposed that the seed had fallen with the rain. Repeated 

 experiments have, however, shown that these seeds, even in cir- 

 cumstances favourable to their developement, have lain for many 

 years without evincing the least change ; and we can, therefore, 

 believe with certainty, that in this case they grew out of the 

 ground. Others, again, infer an immediate creation of many of 

 our common annual plants, and advance many circumstances in 

 proof of it; such as their sudden appearance in great quantities, 

 or the continual renewal of the growth of weeds in enclosed 

 gardens, which, for a long series of years, have been always 

 carefully destroyed. 



But all this only demonstrates the long-preserved power of 

 germination retained by many seeds. For even if we cannot 

 disprove the immediate creation of a number of plants of the lowest 

 organisation, yet when we reflect how many seeds are disse- 

 minated by birds, or by animal manure, this hypothesis, which 

 cannot be admitted in the present state of science, is entirely set 

 aside. At Gottingen, I had myself an opportunity of observing, 

 on several occasions, circumstances of this sort; one year, an 

 annual plant, y^lsine sagittalis L., came up in great profusion, 

 which had not been found there for more than twenty years. 1 

 also found i^iimex maritimus L., and Cypevus fuscus L., thickly 

 overspreading the bottom of a pond that had been drained the 

 year before, no trace of these plants being to be found in the 

 neighbourhood ; and what rendered the circumstance the more 

 striking was, that this pond for many years had always been full 

 of water. These cases may easily explain that already men- 

 tioned ; the more so, as, in turning over the soil, the seed does 

 not always obtain a favourable situation for germinating; and 

 also that the weather, during the period of germination, has a 

 great influence on it. 



The most favourable season for the germination of seed is the 

 spring; and though many sorts grow at diff'erent times, yet it is 

 always more safe to sow them at this season, when the vegetable 

 kingdom awakens from the sleep of nature, 'lluis we often 

 find that many of the seeds of our quickly growing annual 

 plants, when sown immediately after ripening, either do not 



