which these substances are impregnated, 
may have limited the duration of their 
. vegetating property ? 
-À circumstance has been lately stated, 
which, if authentic, would be still more 
: surprising than the vitality of ancient seeds, 
since it relates to the very plant itself: I 
mean the common Onion, found in the 
hand of a mummy, and announced by Mr. 
Houlton to the Medico-Botanical Society 
; of London (see the Echo du Monde Sa- 
vani, 1834, No. 17, p. 66) as having ve- 
getated vigorously after a lethargy of two 
t years. The short quotation in 
the Echo is all the information I possess 
on this subject, and am not aware whether 
the needful precautions have been taken to 
guard against the deceptions practised by 
the modern Egyptians, who are said to be 
very skilful at frauds, where antiquities are 
concerned, 
In summing up the whole of the circum- 
stances, it may therefore be avouched, that 
the only authentic instance of such a pro- 
longed vitality in seeds, is that which M. 
L'Abbé Andierne has stated to me. But 
we must be careful against deducing, from 
the certainty of the fact, any exaggerated 
consequences in this particular instance. 
The decidedly antique form of the tombs, 
their ancient materials, and the total ab- 
sence of local tradition, may even be con- 
sidered as probably warranting their refer- 
ence to a more remote date by some cen- 
turies than what M. Andierne assigns to 
them, I may here, perhaps, be allowed to 
State some of the reasons which have led 
Me to the belief that these graves contain 
the remains of Christians. From the Re- 
cherches sur les Sepultures Nationales, 
by M. Legrand D'Aussy, I- borrow the 
*$ and documents which serve as a 
starting-point for this discussion. 
The custom of burning the body was 
m "e among the Gauls for more than 
: nturies after Julius Cesar. It is at 
on of this custom, which had 
qu combined with that of the Tumulus, 
this author places the co 
of his ini mmencement 
hil - ""poch of Sepulture (that of 
ocks without combustion). A 
. As the type 
INFORMATION RESPECTING SEEDS FOUND IN ROMAN TOMBS. 
297 
of this epoch, M. Legrand d'Aussy in- 
stances the Tumulus or Barrow of Crécy, 
near Abbeville, explored in 1787, and 
which contained two Sarcophagi (the form 
of which he does not state), each composed 
of several pieces of burnt clay (p. 76—7). 
Further on (p. 91 and 106), but without 
indicating the date to which they may be 
referred, he speaks of several instances of 
tombs, constructed wholly of bricks (one 
at Vic-le Comte, nine at Rheims, one at 
Auxerre, one at Barsac, near Bordeaux, 
discovered in 1725, and three at Stras- 
bourg). That at Auxerre, seen and de- 
scribed by M. L'Abbe Lebeuf, was formed 
of twenty-six bricks, a foot and a half long, 
and almost equally broad. From these 
circumstances, in spite of the absence of 
the Tumulus, we may, I think, conclude 
that the tombs at Mouzie are of about the 
same date as that of Crécy (nearly the 3rd 
Epoch of M. Legrand D’Aussy), which 
corresponds to the close of the second, or 
commencement of the third century of the 
Christian era. At this period Christianity 
had long made its way into Gaul, the se- 
cond persecution under Marcus Aurelius, 
in the year 177, having shed the blood of 
St. Pothin, the first Bishop of Lyons. This 
martyr is believed to have been sent to 
Gaul in 157, by St. Polycarp, himself a 
disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and 
we may therefore suppose that Christianity 
was introduced about the same time into 
the South-western provinces of our land. 
The comparison of these dates with the 
epochs assigned by M. Legrand D’Aussy 
to the different modes of interment, seems 
to attest that the custom of burning the 
bodies, a custom that certainly appertained 
essentially to Paganism, diminished suc- 
cessively as Christianity made progress in 
Gaul, and finally ceased with the establish- 
ment of the true faith. In all religions 
the mode of its rites bears reference to 
theory, and wherever any religious belief 
exists, the funerals of the dead form a part 
of the worship. Thus Christianity, while 
it retained and sanctified the use of lustral 
water, proscribed the consuming of the 
body. Thus we are led to refer the tombs 
