VITALITY OF SEEDS. 461 



connects the fruit or seed with the parent plant undergoes marlied 

 changes, -which ultimately effect or permit complete separation 

 of tlie seed from the plant without anj' injurj-. The process of 

 separation has been compared to that bj' which the leaf is de- 

 tached from the branch in the autumn. 



1197. How long can a seed retain its vitality? Some seeds 

 perish shortly after separation from the parent unless they are 

 at once planted, while others preserve their vitality' for long 

 periods. In experiments by De Candolle seeds of three hun- 

 dred and sixtj'-eight species of plants were kept in the same 

 place and under the same conditions for fifteen years. The 

 following results are recorded : — 



Of 1 Balsaminacese 1 came up, or 100 per cent. 



" 10 MalTaceje 5 " " " 50 " " 



" 45 LeguiuinosaB 9 " " " 20 " " 



" SOLabiatae 1 « <> .. gj <. .. 



" 10 Scrophulariaceae " " 



" 10 Umbelliferae " " 



" 16 CaryophyllacesE " " 



" 32 Gramineae " " 



" 34 Craciferse " " 



" 45 Compositae " " 



1198. Daubeny, Henslow, and Lindley found that the seeds 

 of a species of Colutea germinated when fortj'-three years old, and 

 those of a Coronilla when forty-two years old. Thej' ascertained 

 that the seeds of plants belonging to twent3' genera experimented 

 on, germinated after from twenty to twenty-nine j'ears' separa- 

 tion from the parent plant.-' 



There is no unquestioned evidence that wheat-grains from the 

 wrappings of mummies have been made to germinate.'^ 



1 Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1850, 

 p. 165. 



2 The following notes of cases of prolonged vitality may be of interest : — 

 M. R. Brown ra'a dit avoir fait germer des graines de Nelumbium specio- 



sum extraites par lui de I'herbier de Sloane, c'est-k-dire ayant an moins 150 

 ans (De Candolle: Geographie Botanique raisonnfe, 1865, p. 542). 



Seeds of Nelumbium (jaune) have sprouted after they had been in the ground 

 for a century (Lyell's Second Visit to the United States, ii., 1849, p. ?28). 



The gi-ains of wheat found in mummy-wrappings are uniformly blackened 

 as if by slo-vv charring (eremacmisis), and there is no evidence of a trustworthy 

 character that such seeds have ever been made to germinate. The account 

 hy Count von Sternberg of the germination of -wheat supposed to have been 

 procured at the unrolling of a mummy will be found in Isis, 1836, col. 

 716-717. 



