Field and Forest 



DEVOTED TO 



GENERAL NATURAL HLSTORY. 



Vol. I.— JANUARY & FEBRUARY. 1876.— Nos.8 & 9. 



The Vitality of Seeds. 



A contribution to the Botanische Zeitung by Hoffman, giving the 

 results of some experiments on this subject, has attracted general inter- 

 est. He begins by admitting as true, the opinion which has obtained 

 wide credence, that under favorable conditions some seeds may retain 

 the power of germination indefinitely, though as a rule they die in a 

 few years. On draining swamps, clearing timber, and on the earth 

 thrown out of cellars or other excavations, multitudes of plants previ- 

 ously unknown on such spots, often make their appearance, and it is 

 assumed that their seeds have lain dormant in the soil while surrounded 

 by conditions unfavorable to their growth, till a change in those con- 

 ditions permitted their development. One recent instance occurred 

 on an island near Potsdam where a bed filled with varieties of Centau- 

 rea and poppies was, in 1823, turned into a lawn, the volunteers of the 

 next summer destroyed, after which all traces of its former occupants 

 disappeared till 1840, when it was dug eighteen inches deep and for 

 three years was covered with numerous volunteer plants of the above 

 kinds, by which the outline of the former bed was distinctly traced. 



On the same island in 1838, in digging up a poplar, ground was thrown 

 to the surface from a depth of 4 feet, on which thousands of Myo- 

 sotes sparsiflora appeared, a plant never before seen on the island. 



Hoifmans experiments were made with the Loess, a diluvial earth sup- 

 posed to be deposited by the Rhine in a previous geologic epoch. It 

 was thought that if seeds could preserve their vitality so long, we might 

 obtain some of the identical forms of plants which flourished in pre- 

 historic times, and thus gain some facts bearing on the evolution 

 theory. 



