62 FIELD AND FOREST. 



some of the seeds himself, (see Gardener's Chronicle 1855; ) the den- 

 tist who collected them was interviewed on the subject during his life- 

 time and a sworn affidavit was obtained from the laborers who assisted at 

 the excavation. 



The case related by Chas. des Moulins, is also one in which it seems 

 difficult to pick flaws in the evidence. The tombs were undoubtedly 

 of great antiquity, the one from which the seeds were taken was opened 

 by the Vicar Audierne himself, the seeds were found in a number 

 of instances forming a kind of pillow for the head of the corpse, hence 

 they appear to have been placed there intentionally, and they com- 

 menced to grow in the papers in which they were collected before they 

 were committed to the ground. The last fact eliminates many sources 

 of error. 



Several instances are related in Decandolle Physiologic Vegetale in 

 none of which does the persistance of vitality exceed the limits in the 

 experiments of the British Association, except in the cases stated. 



The growth of the Egyptian wheat reported by M. F. Tupper 

 has the appearance of probability. It was taken from an unopened 

 mummy case by Sir Gardener Wilkinson and by him given to Mr. 

 Pettigrew, who furnished Mr. Tupper with 12 grains which were 

 sown with especial precautions and one grain vegetated ripend seed 

 which the report goes on to state looks like the Bellevoue Talavera a 

 niodern varity. But experiments made by Figari Bey, (Gardeners' 

 Chronicle 1863,) and by the committee of the British Asso. wereunsuc- 

 cesful in making mummied seeds grow, and when we consider their age, 

 the impregnation with bitumen which is a nessary result of thier envi- 

 ronment, and the liability to fraud and deception in the transit of 

 Egyptian goods, the exceptional success must be regarded as doubtful. 



It is much to be regretted that the numerous statements made regard- 

 ing the growth of new plants where a change of superficial conditions 

 takes place, as drainage, clearing of forests &c., are not generally sup- 

 ported by as careful observations as those of M. J. B., on the growth 

 of seeds in the bottom of a pond which was known to have been dry 

 33 years before. The springing up of plants new to their place of 

 growth is no proof whatever that the seeds were not deposited there 

 within a very recent period, inasmuch as the non-existence of parent 

 plants within self propagating distance is, as a rule, impossible to be 

 proven. And in cases where the new species appear on freshly exposed 



