﻿6 FIELD AND FOREST. 



at the bottom, minnows swimming in the vicinity of his long antennas 

 always induced him to raise himself and make an awkward grasp in 

 their direction with his large claws. I did not have the good fortune 

 to see him grasp one, but taking a minnow in a pair of forceps and 

 brushing it against his feelers he would reach out and succeeding in 

 taking it would immediately draw it back to his eating feet. The 

 corpses of the minnows were seen floating about in the aquarium soon 

 afterwards until all but one had disappeared. Whether this is the 

 habit of all other species of cray fishes I am not informed, though I 

 suppose it quite likely most of them capture living food. 



James W. Milner. 



The Vitality of Seeds. 



{Continued from page 6j, of Volume i.) 



In addition to the references given previously, the following, of a 

 more general character, deserve consideration : 



Sketches of Creation, Prof. Winchell. Entomologist and Botanist, 

 1870, Dr. G. Vasey. Isis, 1836, Heft., 3, S. 231, Oken. Botanische 

 Zeitung, January 21st, 1876, Prof. Ernst. Nature, Vol. xi, p. 154. 

 Die Natur, 1851, Ule and Muller. Revue des deux mondes, 1861, 

 January. Flora, 1835, Regensburg. Popular Science Monthly, April 



i§75- 



One of the most enthusiastic believers in the extended duration of 



the vitality of seeds is Prof. Winchell, author of " Sketches of 

 Creation." Chapter xxiii begins: " For some years I have been in- 

 clined to believe that the germs of vegetation, which flourished upon 

 our continents previous to the reiga of ice, and many of which must 

 have been buried from 20 to 100 feet beneath the surface of the glacial 

 rubbish, may have retained their vitality for thousands of years, or 

 even to the present time." To support this opinion numerous cases are 

 quoted of great durability in such vegetable matter, as charred piles, 

 buried cedars, etc., also the numerous observed variations of sponta- 

 neous growth under altered conditions of the earth's surfaee, and 

 finally some of the facts we have already mentioned, adding from Car- 

 penter an instance of the growth of the beach plum, (Primus maritima) 

 on sandy soil thrown out of a well near the Penobscot river, Maine, 



