cir. I. 



BY TPIE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



15 



with moisture. And tliey inhale the air for their 

 existence, and imbibe the moisture for their growth, 

 by absorption from the surface. 



We may regard the growth of ' mummy- wheat ' 

 as an idle tale. Lyell informs us that, in an experi- 

 ment at Kew Gardens, ' out of 100 seeds of wheat, 

 barley, and lentils, from Mr. Sam's collection in the 

 British Museum, not one of them would germinate ; ' 

 and that a friend of his found occasional grains of 

 maize (first imported from America) in several parcels 

 of corn sold by the Arabs as coming from the cata- 

 combs. Lyell does not, however, controvert the pos- 

 sibility of the growth of seeds after an entombment 

 of 3,000 years. And supposing the presence of atmo- 

 spheric air, and the absence of moisture, sufficient to 

 cause generation, we know^ no reason why they should 

 not grow. But we do know that if seeds are deprived 

 of atmospheric air, by being hermetically sealed, even 

 for a few months, they die. 



Again, the existence and growth of cuttings which Cuttings 



imbibe bv 



have no root, old or young, prove absorption from the the surface, 

 surface. 



In the hot climate and on the arid hill-sides of 

 Spain the ohve is propagated by cuttings. These cut- 

 tings are old branches 7 feet in length. One end of 

 such a cutting is buried about 18 inches in a pit, and 

 concrete earth or clay is raised, like a pillar, round it, 

 so that, at the upper end, only about 8 or 10 inches 

 of the cutting is exposed to the atmosphere. Thus 



