2 
NATURE NOTES. 
seeds supplied him by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. He alluded to 
a sample of mummy wheat which he had carefully inspected 
grain by grain, and found among it two grains of a different 
variety from the rest ; these were perfectly fresh, whereas the 
others were dark-coloured, with decided indications of decompo- 
sition and partial charring. Upon inquiry he was able to ascer- 
tain that this sample was a portion of a large stock, which had 
been taken from a catacomb some years previously, and had 
been exposed for sale in the jars of a corn merchant at Cairo. 
There could be no doubt an accidental admixture of a few 
recent grains left in the jar had taken place. In samples sup- 
plied by Sir G. Wilkinson to the late Robert Brown for the 
purpose of experiment, the latter had found in it a few grains 
of Indian corn ! He thought it not at all improbable that the 
samples he had examined, and those furnished by Sir G. Wil- 
kinson, might have formed portions of the same stock.” 
In the other case to which I have referred, a quantity of peas 
were said to be the produce, after a few generations, of some seeds 
taken by m3’ correspondent’s brother out of a mummy case. I 
obtained a specimen of the plant on which the peas grew. It was 
not our cultivated pea. I communicated with the brother and 
found that he did not himself find the mummy peas, but had 
bought them from an Arab who said they were taken from a 
mummy case ! The peas belong to the species now commonl3’ 
cultivated in Egypt. Similarl}’ the so-called mummy wheat 
is the man3’-headed species now cultivated there. 
Xo one who has dissected a seed, and e.xamined the tissues 
of which the living germ is composed, can possibly believe that 
its vitalit}’ could be preserved, under any conditions, for thousands 
of 3’ears. But the limits of the life of many seeds have been 
definitel}’ ascertained. For fifteen 3’ears a Committee of the 
British Association carried on a series of most careful experi- 
ments with a large number of seeds; the results were tabulated 
in their final report submitted to the Association in 1857 (Re- 
ports, p. 43). The limit varies greatly in different seeds. The 
length of a seed’s life depends mainly on the natural protec- 
tion it has against the ph3’sical conditions which surround it, 
especialty the action of air and moisture. The longest lived 
seeds are those which are naturally sown in water, from the 
destro3ung operation of which they are protected by a specially 
hard protective cov’ering. Perhaps the most authentic case of 
an old seed germinating is that of a Nelumbium water-lih’. 
Forty 3’ears ago Robert Brown experimented with seeds which 
had come from Sir Hans Sloane to the British IMuseum, and had 
certainly been in the boxes in which he found them for a hun- 
dred and fifty 3’ears. Several of these seeds germinated. The 
covering of the grain of wheat is ver3^ different from that of 
the Xelumbium. The embryo is protected by a very thin 
covering which permits the evaporation of the fluids of the 
seed, so as to produce its death in a short time. Preserved 
