SEEDS : THEIR PRESERVATION AND GERMINATION. 653 



come now, in the last place, to consider the question : How long will seeds 

 under any circumstances retain their germinative power ? Long experience has 

 shown that under ordinary conditions the various farm and garden seeds will re- 

 tain their vitality from one to eight years. Regarding this there is no difference 

 of opinion. But, from the assertion that, under extraordinary circumstances seeds 

 have been known to retain their power of germination for scores of years and 

 even centuries, there is strong dissent. Among the most noted opposers of this 

 theory is Mr. Thomas Meehan, editor of the Gardener' s Monthly, and one of the 

 ablest vegetable physiologists of the age. He says, {G. M., Vol. 17, pp. 212,) 

 in speaking of the notion "that seeds usually with a limited vitality will live for 

 an indefinite period when in the ground, or 'Egyptian tomb,'" that "There is 

 no good evidence of this." Again, speaking of the reported growth of poppy 

 seed that had lain dormant in a Grecian mine 2000 years old, he remarks, ((?. 

 M., Vol. 18, p. 344): "We know of no evidence satisfactory to us, that any 

 , seeds have been found vital under the extraordinary circumstances claimed. The 

 whole theory of great vitality through long periods when buried in the earth, is 

 at best founded on nothing but shrewd guesses, and in the main on the evidence 

 of persons of no more importance in a scientific point of view than those who be- 

 lieve that wheat is transformed into chess." But at another time [G. M., Vol. 12, 

 p. 173,) he admits that he had formerly held the opinion that Magnolia seeds 

 would never germinate after they had become dry. But he found this opinion 

 to be erroneous and gives facts to disprove it as follows : " Once we found a 

 package which had been thrust under a rafter in a tool shed in spring, which 

 grew as well as any. More recently, Mrs. Col. Wilder found a package of Mag- 

 nolia soulangeana seed in Mr. Wilder's wardrobe, which had been there between 

 two and three years, and which on sowing, produced a plant for every seed." 



If everybody had been mistaken regarding the longevity of these seeds, may 

 not those be in error who refuse to admit the extraordinary vitality claimed for 

 some seeds under special circumstances. Let us inquire somewhat concerning 

 this question. Mr. D. C. Eaton, of Boston, in a "Yale Agricultural Lecture" 

 states that "Cucumber seeds have been kept seventeen years; corn, thirty; 

 French beans, thirty-three, and from one bag of seeds the Jardin des Plantes was 

 supplied with sensitive plants for sixty years. 



The Gardener's Monthly, (Vol. 23, p. 24,) gives us the following example of 

 vitality: "Mr. LeRoy, of Columbia College, looking over, in the winter of 

 1879-80, the plants of Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, collected in Patagonia, be- 

 tween 1838-42, found three seeds of a gourd, which were planted in his garden 

 in the spring of 1880. Two of the three grew and bore fruit the same season. 

 This fixes forty years of vital power for these seeds." 



But if these seeds had been perfectly protected from air and moisture why 

 might not this vitality have extended to centuries just as well as it did to decades ? 

 According to Johnson, [How Crops Grow, p. 305,) Girardin sprouted peas that were 

 over a century old. It is said that Grimstone with great pains raised peas from 

 a seed taken from a sealed vase found in the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mum- 



