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THE AMERICAN 



those plauts had- lain dormant in the eai'th for 

 generations. 



The appearance of the Loblolly Pine upon 

 abandoned plantations in the Southern States 

 presents to our view no greater difficulty. The 

 Professor inquires, "Let the waters of a brine satu- 

 rate a meadow, and how long before we would 

 witness the appearance of Scirpus maritimus, 

 Triglochiii niaritimum, or some other salt-loving 

 plant, whose germs, unless spontaneously de- 

 veloped, must have lain dormant in the soil at 

 a greater or less depth." "We cannot answer 

 the inquiry as to how long, but we feel well 

 assni-ed that so much time will elapse that we 

 shall not have to accept the dilemma of spon- 

 taneous generation or preexisteut germs. One 

 of the plants mentioned, Triglocliin maritiinum, 

 is not well chosen inasmuch as it occurs in vari- 

 ous places in the interior of the country, from 

 the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, without 

 any regard to salt springs. It is true that, in the 

 vicinity of salt springs in the interior, we often 

 find plants which are otherwise confined to 

 the sea coast, but this is not more difficult to 

 explain than the occurrence of strictly Alpine 

 plants on widely separated mountain peaks. 

 We will not undertake to say how every 

 mountain, sea, river, lake, forest and plain is 

 first stocked with its appropriate vegetation. 

 We confess ignorance. 



, Again, Professor W. says: ''How soon does 

 a dressing of undecomposed muck or peat de- 

 velop a crop of acid-loving sorrel, and how 

 readily it is again repressed by a dressing of 

 some alkaline manure." Now, we are not 

 very well informed in agricultural chemistry, 

 nor in practical agriculture, but we would like 

 to know if this method of producing and destroy- 

 ing soi-rel can be relied upon, loarticularly iu a 

 country like ours, where sorrel {Bumex aceto- 

 sella) is considered to be a foreign weed. We 

 know plenty of places where it has made its 

 appearance without any such agency, and have 

 no doubt that many unfortunate farmers will be 

 overjoyed to learn that it can be easilj' repj-essecZ, 

 if not eradicated, by the application of a dress- 

 ing of alkaline manure. 



One more assertion under this proposition 

 deserves notice, it is this: "Earth thrown out 

 of cellars and wells is generally known to send 

 up a ready crop of weeds, and not unfrequently 

 of species previously unknown in that spot." 

 This statement is uusustained by any instances, 

 except under the next proposition, where a case 

 is related of the appearance of some Beach-plum 

 trees on ground that had been covered by sand 

 brought up from a well at the depth of twenty 



feet. It is concluded that, inasmuch as no other 

 Beach-plum trees were known to be within forty 

 miles of the place, the seeds of these trees must 

 have been brought up with the sand taken from 

 the well. This example is hardly sufficient to 

 sustain so general and sweeping a statement. 

 But let us bring it- to the test of experience. 



There are many thousand cellars and wells 

 dug ever)- }eai', there are thousands of places 

 where the drift has been exposed in grading for 

 railroads, hundreds of XDlaces where the soil has 

 been brought up from great depths iu digging 

 for coal and minerals — and we ask, with what 

 result ? In all this country how many new 

 species have been brought to light by these 

 means ? We venture to assert not one. Is it 

 true that earth brought up from even a few feet 

 in depth sends up a "ready crop of weeds," for 

 whose appearance we cannot readily account by 

 the aid of winds, birds and water? 



We admit that there are some facts connected 

 with the succession of forest trees that seem 

 difficult to explain ; but, even if we admit that, 

 in such cases, the seeds of oue kind of trees have 

 lain dormant in the soil for the lifetime of 

 another kind, and then have taken their turn in 

 the production of a forest of a different kind, 

 the adoption of that view does not give license 

 to the opinion that these seeds would have re- 

 tained their vitality for a geological age, if 

 buried hundreds of feet beneath the surface. 



Some very absurd stories have been related 

 respecting the vitality of seeds, and once started, 

 these stories seem to pass without a question. 



Even Prof. W. is compelled to doubt some of 

 the stories which he brings to the support of his 

 theory; for instance, that of a beautiful Z>a7i?«a 

 having grown from a bulb found in the hands of 

 a mummy 2000 years old. It is also stated that 

 "it is generally believed that wheat is now 

 growing in England which was derived from 

 grains folded in the wrappings of Egyptian 

 mummies, where they must have lain for two 

 or three thousand years." We confess that we 

 fully share the doubts of Prof. Gray on this 

 subject. 



We now come to the fourth proposition of 

 Professor W., viz: "The living germs of the 

 diluvial deposits were buried during the glacial 

 period." 



The argument iu support of this statement is 

 that the fossil plants which have been discovered 

 iu the Tertiary deposits show a correspondence 

 of genera, and in some cases of species, with 

 those of the present date. During this Tertiary 

 period the seeds of plants accumulated in the 

 soil ; then came the change of climate and de- 



