139 



The Longevity of Seeds. 



By 



Db. a. von DEOEN, 

 Director, Boyal Hungarian Seed Control Station, Budapest. 



One of the most absorbing chapters in the science of seeds is that 

 which relates to the study of the life within the individual grain of seed. 



Strange indeed is the phenomenon manifested in this grain of seed, 

 in this tiny structure almost entirely isolated from the outside world 

 and endowed with all the characteristics of a living being reduced to the 

 smallest volume, frequently indeed to a few cells, and capable of 

 persisting in this condition) apparently devoid of life, until, under favour- 

 able circumstances, the cells once more revive and produce the 

 parent-plant again, strong and rejuvenated, with all its constituent organs 

 intact. 



It is marvellous, in our eyes, to observe how, for instance, the life 

 of the orchid-plant in all its glory, the life of the tree of mighty growth, 

 becomes for a while concentrated in a minute seed — a seed, in the case 

 of the Orchid, so small as to be scarcely more than a grain of dust— and 

 how this life can endure in this state for many years. 



Such a grain of seed confines within itself the greatest mysteries of 

 Biology, the mystery of life and death, the mysteries of fertilisation and 

 of hereditary transmission. For the study of all these problems the 

 grain of seed constitutes a rnost favourable object, ever present in endless 

 quantities, patient under treatment and eeisy of manipulation; and it 

 is strange that, in spite of the wealth of literature on the subject, the 

 numerous questions connected with the cause of life and death, and some 

 kindred questions, such as that of suspended life, the so-called " vie 

 latente," and that of the decay of life force, remain still almost entirely 

 unsolved. 



TnHy, a world for thought lies concealed in the fact, most simple 

 in itself, that I, with a slight exertion of force, simply by crushing or by 

 otherwise injuring the grain of seed,, can destroy all its life-functions, 

 can in a moment annihilate, by a relatively insignificant effort, immense. 

 pos'sibiHties of life, and can, in short, transform a living being into, an 

 inert substance. 



Within the scope of a short lecture it is impossible even to 

 enumerate all the problems involved in the life confined in the grain 

 of seed. 1 beg you, therefore, to permit me to discuss but one of these 

 problems, and that also only in brief outline, namely, the question of the 

 suspended life of the seed. How does this state arise, and how long 

 can it endure ? How does life subsist in this state, and in what manner, 

 by what cause, does the latent life or apparent death lapse into actual 

 death ? 



Old seeds are the objects presented to us for this kind of .study, and 

 especially those seeds of which the age is accurately known. 



In this connection, it appears most remarkable how relatively insig- 

 nificant is the stock of reliable old material at our disposal. The historic 

 and prehistoric material derived from excavations, especially of tombs,' 

 the museums and old herbaria still furnish us with our main supply, 

 but, unfortunately, in the case of such seeds, it is not always possible to 

 determine their age with precision, nor yet, in many cases, even their 

 origin. 



Errors are of frequent occurrence. I will not here repeat the oft-told 

 tales of mummy -wheat, and of the grain discovered by Desmoulins,* 

 alleged to have gemiinated after the lapse of thirteen or sixtefen oenttuies : 

 these data have, for the most part, been critically, discussed in Paul 

 BeequereVs admirable work, " Becherches eur la vie latent^ dei grainea."'f 



* Aotes de la Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, 1835 i 65. 



t Annales des Sciences Nat., S6r V., 1907 : 249-311. 



