Foreign Notices : — Germany. 859 



of wheat having grown, after being kept 140 years, without having been 

 excluded from the air. 



I remember it being mentioned some years ago, by a gentleman who 

 had been in North America, and present during the excavations made for 

 a fortification, that he had observed that the soil thrown up from under 

 a number of layers of limestone produced a variety of plants unknown in 

 the neighbourhood: the inference is evident, that the seeds must have 

 remained alive during the formation of the layers of limestone, and cer- 

 tainly excluded from the air. Dr. Darwin mentions an instance of mustard 

 seed producing a crop, on soil being dug up where it had been at rest for 

 ages. Seclusion from light and heat in the bowels of the earth appears 

 to be the most certain method of preserving seeds. In such a state the 

 temperature does not vary ; and to the want of this uniformity we may 

 perhaps attribute the failure of M. Otto, when using tin cases hermetically- 

 sealed. If the case containing the seeds were placed in a box lined with 

 a layer of dry charcoal, or any non-conductor of heat, might we not thus 

 artificially produce a uniformity of temperature ? I am, Sir, yours, &c. — 

 Charles M. Willich. London, Feb. 27. 1832. 



The Prussian Horticultural Society. — At a Meeting held Feb. 5. 1832, 

 among various other papers noticed, were the following : — A new method 

 'of removing moss from fruit trees, by paring the trunk as far as to the inner 

 bark, successively employed by the Arch-priest Masselli of Breslau; and 

 a note from the commercial gardener, Herr Gottlieb Friedrich Seidel of 

 Dresden, in which he extols the sea-kale (Crambe maritima), as forming 

 an excellent fodder : in this opinion, however, the Society did not concur, 

 TSeveral printed papers were transmitted to the Association ; among them 

 were the Proceedings of the Economical Society of Dresden (26th delivery), 

 from which the director read an extract, describing a method (completely 

 successful on the first trials) of laying up fruit after the manner of pota- 

 toes, by placing them in heaps upon a layer of straw in a dry place, and 

 overlaying them with a thick covering of straw and sandy earth ; likewise 

 by sinking new flower-pots, containing the fruit, several feet under ground, 

 and covering them with straw and earth. The director also referred to 

 an essay, equally worthy of attention, upon the storing of fruit in Pohl's 

 Intelligence concerning Domestic Affairs (4th number). The second volume 

 of Herr Freidherrn von Hammerstein's recent publications on agriculture, 

 transmitted by the Agricultural Society at Felle, was the occasion of a 

 discourse from Professor Link, private medical counsellor, who spoke 

 with reference to that part which touches on the supposed origin of amber. 

 Professor von Schlechtendal called the attention of the Meeting to the work 

 announced by Professor Nees von Esenbeck, in Breslau, viz. The Natural 

 Groups of Asters, illustrated by Figures, for which Griison, the bookseller, 

 of Breslau, receives subscriptions. The professor further communicated 

 some interesting articles from Loudon's Gardener's Magazine (No. xxxih). 

 There were, besides, presented by Dr. Cranz, the landed proprietor of 

 Brusenfelde, near Fiddichow, an interesting letter upon the labouring 

 agriculturists in the province of Hither Pomerania and of the Island of 

 Bugen; by the counsellor of justice, Herr Burchardt of Landsberg, a very 

 scarce work, viz. Les remonstrances sur le default du labour et culture 

 des plantes, et de la cognoissance oVicelles, contenant la maniere d'affranchir et 

 apprivoiser les arbres sauvages, par Pierre Bellon du Mans (Paris, 1558, 

 8vo). This work, according to the statement of Herr Link, possesses a 

 high degree of interest, not on account of its rareness alone, but because 

 it gave occasion to the establishment of the first botanic garden. The 

 chamberlain, Count von Hagen of Mb'ckern, near Burg, gave information 

 to the Meeting respecting the experiments made upon the cultivation of 

 the seeds, sent from America to the Society, of a species of grass, very 



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