ON SEEDS AND SEED SOWING 



pot in water so that the moisture may rise. It is not 

 necessary to cover the tiniest seeds with soil at all, but 

 a very light sprinkling of silver sand is advisable ; those 

 of average size that can be taken up singly without 

 difficulty need a slight soil covering, something like a 

 quarter of an inch ; large seeds, such as those of Sweet 

 Peas, Sunflowers, etc., are sown in holes, an inch deep 

 or more, made by a blunt stick. 



The vitality of seeds is a most absorbing subject ; 

 it is full of interest, of delightful surprises, and of para- 

 doxes. The stories of the mummy wheat that are still, 

 I believe, regularly told to credulous tourists in the land 

 of Pharaoh, are now believed to have no foundation in 

 fact, and are ridiculed by expert seed growers. No 

 doubt the wheat sold as mummy wheat is a fraud, but 

 this in itself would not disprove the long-keeping proper- 

 ties of wheat seed. However, I am content to believe 

 those who tell us it is impossible for wheat seed to pre- 

 serve its vitality for thousands of years. There seems 

 little doubt that nobody knows how long seeds will re- 

 main dormant yet sound in the earth, when conditions are 

 favourable. Seeds lose their vitality much more quickly 

 when they are out of the soil than when they are em- 

 bedded. But it is remarkable even then that they retain 

 vitality long after they are supposed to have lost it. 



In the year 1910 I chanced to come across a packet 

 of Tomato seed that I had gathered and saved in 1901, 

 nine years previously. I am sure of the date, for it was 



