PROLONGED VITALITY OF SEEDS. 291 



formed in the King's Park (a piece of ground belonging to the 

 castle) at Stirling. Wherever the ground was broken, broom 

 sprang up, although none had ever been known to grow there. 

 The plant was subsequently destroyed ; but in 1 745, a similar 

 growth appeared, after the ground had been again broken up for 

 a like purpose. Some time afterwards, the Park was ploughed 

 up, and the broom became generally spread over it. The same 

 thing happened in a field in the neighbourhood, from the whole 

 surface of which about nine inches of soil "had been removed, 

 The broom-seeds could not have been conveyed by the wind, 

 although the plant is a common one in the neighbourhood, 

 because they are heavy and without wings (. 471) ; and the 

 form of the ground is such, that no stream of water could have 

 transported them, or have covered them afterwards with soil. 

 Such an effect must have resulted from the operation of causes, 

 continued through a long period of time. 



451. Perhaps the most remarkable instance on record, as 

 presenting satisfactory proof of the lapse of at least 1600 or 

 1700 years, is one related by Dr. Lindley. "I have now before 

 me," he says, " three plants of Raspberries, which have been 

 raised in the gardens of the Horticultural Society, from seeds 

 taken from the stomach of a man, whose skeleton was found 30 

 feet below the surface of the earth, at the bottom of a barrow,* 

 which was opened near Dorchester. He had been buried with 

 some coins of the Emperor Hadrian." 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 nothing improbable in the fact ; but as 

 the Arabs, from whom the mummies are commonly obtained, 

 are in the habit of previously unrolling them in search of coins, 

 &c., it is not always certain that the seeds which have sprouted 

 were really at first enclosed with the mummies. 



* These barrows, as they are termed, are large mounds of earth, which are 

 very common on the downs along the south coast of England. They are evidently 

 artificial, not natural ; and, when dug into, are usually found to contain human 

 remains, with pottery ; weapons, &c. Hence they are evidently burial-places ; 

 and as a large number of them are generally found together, they seem to have 

 been erected on fields of battle, to contain the bodies of the slain. 



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