ON THE TOMATO 



to my surprise, almost every seed germinated. But 

 the majority of the seeds did nothing more than 

 form cotyledons, lacking the central bud for fur- 

 ther development. There were a few exceptional 

 plants, however, among the large company — per- 

 haps altogether two dozen — that continued their 

 growth and in due course fruited. 



The fruit of some of these plants grown from 

 nineteen-year-old seed was sent to an eastern hor- 

 ticultural journal, whose editor commented on the 

 fact that seed kept for this long period still pro- 

 duced fruit quite equal to anything that had been 

 developed in the intervening nineteen years. 



In planting the nineteen-year-old seed, I re- 

 tained a certain quantity from the same lot for a 

 further test. The following year it was planted in 

 the same careful manner. But although a few of 

 the seeds germinated and sent up cotyledons of a 

 weaker type, not one had the power of developing 

 beyond that stage. 



All of these seeds in the tewntieth year seemed 

 to have lost the capacity to produce a central bud 

 from which the plant stem could develop. 



Of course it may have been only an accident 

 that a few seeds were able to take on mature 

 growth after nineteen years, whereas not one could 

 do so after twenty years. But I am inclined to 

 think that the seeds had reached just about their 



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