SEED AND SEED SOWING. 



63 



from the pyramids having germinated, melon seeds have 

 been known to grow at the age of forty years, kidney 

 beans at one hundred, sensitive-plant at sixty, rye at forty, 

 and there are now (1859) growing, in the garden of the 

 Horticultural Society, raspberry plants raised from seeds 

 sixteen hundred or seventeen hundred years old." 



There is considerable difference of opinion between ex- 

 perimenters in regard to the duration of vitality in agri- 

 cultural seeds under ordinary climatic influences; but it 

 probably depends upon the comparative condition of the 

 seed and the influence of the different climates of their 

 respective countries. The table below shows the earlier 

 experiments of Cobbett in England, and the later ones of 

 Vilmorin in France. 



Southern vegetable-growers must bear in mind that 

 our warmer climate, particularly on the moist sea coast, 

 will affect the longevity of seed. Onion seed, for instance, 

 cannot be relied upon after the first year; those of the 

 varieties of cabbage and of turnip after the second, and 

 those of cucurbitaceae, as melon, squash, cucumber, etc., 

 after the fourth year. Some seeds lose their germinating 

 power, if allowed to become dry, as will those of the wil- 

 low two weeks after ripening. Experience teaches us that 

 fresh seeds of cucumbers, melons, etc., produce plants 



