18 POtULAE EEfiOHS. 



dens of the London Horticultural Society, raised 

 by Professor Lindley from seed discovered in the 

 stomach of a man whose skeleton was found thirty 

 feet below the surface of the earth at the bottom 

 of a barren or burial mound near Dorchester, Eng- 

 land. With the body had been buried some coins 

 of the Emperor Hadrian; from which it is assumed 

 that these seeds had retained their vitality for the 

 space of sixteen or seventeen hundred years. 



In the Gardeners^ Chronicle for 1848, page 700, 

 is an account of some seeds of Roman origin taken 

 from a tomb in Prance, and referred to the third 

 or fourth century, and therefore 1, 500 or 1,600 

 years old. 



The seeds were carefully removed and were sown 

 by two different persons, whose names are given, 

 together with the manner in which they were sown. 

 From both lots there were obtained plants of 

 Medicago lupulina and Heliotropium Europceum, 

 and from one of the lots Centaurea cyanus in addi- 

 tion. Another case is given in the same connection 

 of seeds found in an earthen vessel eight feet be 

 low the surface, and supposed to belong to an age 

 anterior to the Eoman conquest of Gaul. From 

 these seeds about 20 plants of Mercurialis annua 

 were grown. 



But the cases which have attracted more atten- 

 tion than any others are those of the germination 



