6o8 
On the Supposed Germinating 
[October, 
deceitfulness of the Arabs, who put modern wheat into the 
old vases and sell them to travellers. Nothing but a miracle 
could make mummy wheat germinate.” 
Mr. William Carruthers, F.R.S., Consulting Botanist to 
the Royal Agricultural Society, says “ The statements in 
your papers as to mummy wheat are quite corredt. I have 
examined many specimens in the British Museum, and I 
found every one incapable of germination. I have had a 
case of supposed germination investigated. Mr. John 
Macgregor, “ Rob Roy,” germinated, he believes, two 
mummy seeds, but the plants that grew were oats— a grain 
unknown to the Egyptians! A pea, also, was sent to me, 
said to have been grown from a seed taken out of a mummy- 
case, but on applying to the person who had taken it out he 
informed me that he had only the testimony of the Arab 
from whom he had got the peas. No case investigated has 
turned out to be trustworthy. As a matter of fadt, the seeds 
of wheat are incapable of germination when they are ten or 
twelve years old.” 
Professor Sir Charles A. Cameron, M.D., President of the 
Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, Chemist to the Royal 
Agricultural Society, Ireland, M.R.I.A., &c., writes ex- 
plicitly thus :t — “ I never believed that the so-called mummy 
wheat was really composed of seeds which had been deposited 
in the tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt at the time of 
their sepulture. So far as I can learn, it is alleged that the 
wheat found in the tombs germinated very satisfactorily. 
Now we know that it is only the best matured seeds of 
plants which satisfactorily germinate, and every seed-grower 
is aware that the vitality of seeds is influenced by many 
factors. The seeds produced under unfavourable climatic 
influences sometimes are incapable of re-producing their 
parent plants. Very old seeds are known, too, to be much 
inferior to those of recent growth. No doubt seeds retain 
their vitality for a very long period, but when thousands of 
years old, I am quite sure that the embryo plants which 
they contain could have no vitality left. One might as well 
suppose that an egg embalmed for a thousand years would 
be capable to produce a chick, when hatched, as to believe 
that organic matter could be associated with dormant vege- 
table life for a period of nearly forty centuries.” 
Sir J. B. Lawes, Bart., J.P., LL.D., F.R.S., F.C.S. (who, 
in conjunction with Dr. J. H. Gilbert), has written in the 
* Letter to the writer, February 7, 1884. 
f Letter to the writer, January 17, 1884. 
