The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
697 
How Long Can A Seed Live? 
The Missouri Botanical Garden Bulle¬ 
tin for March, 1022, makes the following 
interesting statements regarding the vi¬ 
tality of seeds: 
The wide circulation of such fables as 
the supposed germination of “mummy 
wheat” has left the impression, in the 
minds of the general public at. least, that 
there is practically no limitation to the 
persistence of life when it is once en¬ 
closed in the seed-coats of a plant. The 
origin of this myth seems to be that 
about 1840 a dozen grains of wheat were 
sent to England with the statement that 
they had been taken from a vase found 
in one of the ancient tombs which con¬ 
tained a mummy. These seeds were 
sown, and one plant was said to have 
been raised which bore two poor ears. 
Just where the mistake occurred cannot 
be stated, but there is no doubt that the 
grain which germinated either never 
came from Egypt or was of recent origin 
and had not been buried for centuries. 
Wheat and other seeds have frequently 
been found iu ancient Egyptian tombs, 
but a microscopic examination of such 
grain invariably shows that the embryo 
has acquired a brownish color and is 
practically destroyed. In no case would 
it be possible for it to germinate. Actual 
experiments have proved that out of 750 
seeds of wheat stored under ideal condi¬ 
tions for 10 years only 8 per cent sprout¬ 
ed, and by the time the seed was from 
30 to 35 years old no germination would 
take place. 
Within the past year or two the daily 
press has given considerable space to the 
reported germination of morning glory 
seed found in the hand of a mummy. 
While the accounts vary, in some cases 
the seed being reported as that of an 
Egyptian pea, they are more or less in 
agreement iu stating that the secretary 
for the Society of Bibliographical Arch¬ 
aeology of London brought from Egypt 
to England 12 seeds (the same number 
as in the original mummy wheat story) 
found in hand of a mummy of a young 
girl which was excavated from a tomb 
nearly 5,000 years old. AH the seed ger¬ 
minated. and when the plants matured 
blue morning glories (or sweet peas) 
“looking like a tiny Egyptian face” were 
produced. 
Unfortunately, efforts to verify the ac¬ 
tual conditions under which the seed were 
found have failed and, for the present at 
least., the case will have to be classed 
with still another one where the seeds 
of oats were supposed to have germinated 
after removal from a mummy case 2,600 
years old. The particular mummy was 
one presented to John Macgregor about 
1870 by the Khedive of Egypt. When 
the mummy reached England the case 
was opened in the presence of creditable 
witnesses and in the dust at the bottom 
were found four oat seeds. Two of these 
were sown by Macgregor and two turned 
over to the Royal Botanic Society of 
London for planting. All four seeds ger¬ 
minated, and, because of the care with 
which the mummy case bad been opened 
and the connection of the Royal Botanic 
Society with the growing of the seedlings, 
the case was regarded as absolutely au¬ 
thentic. While it seemed odd that only 
four seeds were found and these were 
precisely similar to varieties then in cul¬ 
tivation, no doubt was cast upon the 
truth of the incident until a long time 
afterward. It then developed that this 
identical mummy had becu stored with 
others in the stables of the Khedive 
where fodder, including oats, was kept 
for the horses. The Khedive was in the 
habit of keeping on hand in his stables a 
stock of these most interesting products 
of his country, so that they would be 
ready at any time to present to dis¬ 
tinguished visitors. It was shown that 
the dry air of the stable, together with 
rough usage, either warped and split the 
wood of the case or caused the clay luting 
which joined the two halves of the case 
to fall out. thus forming an opening 
through which the oats filtered in. There 
is no doubt that, for the purpose of de¬ 
ceiving credulous tourists, modern wheat 
or oat grain appropriately stained have 
sometimes been mixed with wheat taken 
from ancient vases and mummy cases 
aud sold ns “mummy wheat.” Genuine 
vases, apparently unopened, but. con¬ 
taining such grains, are also occasionally 
sold lo travelers. 
Since plants unquestionably have ap¬ 
peared in regions where they were pre¬ 
viously unknown, after the soil had been 
opened up by digging or dredging, it was 
concluded ibat the seed must have been 
preserved alive for very long periods, 
because buried more or less deeply in the 
earth. Of course there has never been 
adequate supervision of such cases, and 
invariably it has been found that the 
plants recorded .as appearing under such 
condition do not have particularly long- 
lived seed, at least when preserved iu 
air. Rather extensive experiments have 
further demonstrated that if is not true 
that seeds preserve their vitality longer 
if buried in the soil, but that they will 
keep much better iu air if perfectly dry. 
The appearance of unusual plants in 
regions cleared by forest tires has been 
regarded as another evidence of the ex¬ 
treme viability of seed. While it is true 
that some seeds which have lain dormant 
in the earth for a considerable length of 
time may be germinated through the heat¬ 
ing of the ground, there is no authority 
for the idea that plants originating under 
such circumstances have come (nun seeds 
which have lain in the soil an extraor¬ 
dinary length of time. The possibility of 
their being carried by birds or other 
animals, or by wind or flood cannot be 
disregarded. 
All investigators are agreed that the 
viability of ordinary dried seed is quite 
unaffected by exposure to extreme cold. 
What was regarded as a most remarkable 
fact at the time was the finding in Janu¬ 
ary, 1891k by some members of the Peary 
arctic expedition, of seeds abandoned by 
Lieutenant Greely IS years before, and 
which daring this period had been ex¬ 
posed to a Winter temperature of from 
60 to 70 degrees below zero. Twenty- 
three years after these seeds were har¬ 
vested some of them germinated, and this 
demonstration of the ability of seed to 
withstand low temperature was cited as 
one which would not likely be again re¬ 
peated. Since that time seeds have been 
exposed to the temperature of liquid hy¬ 
drogen (-250° 0.) without deleterious re¬ 
sults. Some contend that this proves 
that seed must necessarily be in a state 
of static equilibrium, since all chemical 
change must be iu abeyance with such ex¬ 
treme cold. On the other hand, it is be¬ 
lieved by many that any change would 
only be indefinitely retarded by the low 
temperature. 
Plants resort to various expedients to 
prevent their means of perpetuation 
through seed being destroyed by heat or 
drought or excessive moisture. As a 
general rule, the thinner and more per¬ 
meable the seed coat the shorter lived the 
seed, although sometimes the seed coat 
may be relatively tbin and yet. quite im¬ 
pervious to moisture, as in the case of 
the garden pea. Again, the long life of 
the seed may be due to the excessively 
hard or the abnormally thickened seed 
coat, and germination may not take place 
for several years after the seed has been 
exposed to favorable conditions. To the 
farmer or gardener delayed germination 
is a nuisance, since he desires all seed 
to germinate promptly and those of the 
same kind to appear at approximately 
the same time. Clover is a good exam¬ 
ple of a plant which produces seed with 
coats of varying thickness, so that from 
a single plant the so-called “hard” seed 
may germinate weeks or even months 
after the others. At one time a machine 
was devised which, by means of an air 
blast, forced the clover seed against 
rough iron plates, and these, by scratch¬ 
ing the seed coats, rendered them all 
equally permeable to moisture, and ger¬ 
mination was more or less simultaneous. 
Still another method has been to sub¬ 
merge hard-coated seeds in strong acid, 
certain kind being capable of standing 
this treatment for several hours without 
injury. Germination is thus secured 
within a reasonable length of time in¬ 
stead of requiring years. 
An interesting instance of the adapta¬ 
bility of plants to meet special conditions 
is found in Nehrmbium speeiosum. the 
sacred lily of India, the seed of which, 
if sown as soon as ripe, germinates under 
water in less than a month. Should the 
seed once get hard by being removed from 
the water, it is almost impossible to break 
it, so that years may pass without ger¬ 
mination unless the coat has been 
scratched or filed. When this is done, 
however, and moisture admitted, they 
will germinate within 24 hours. The 
value to the plant of such a seed is that, 
should the pond in which it is growing 
dry up and the seed fail to fall into wa¬ 
ter, it can lie dormant awaiting a return 
to its natural aquatic habitat. It is in¬ 
teresting to note in this connection that 
seeds of Xelumbium have retained their 
vitality for the longest period authen¬ 
tically determined thus far. Robert 
Brown, an English botanist of the early 
part of the nineteenth century, records 
that seeds of Xelumbium were sent by 
Sloan to the botanical department of the 
British Museum. A hundred and fifty 
years afterwards he found them in the 
original boxes in which they had been 
transmitted. Brown himself succeeded 
in germinating these seeds, and there 
seems no reason to doubt the accuracy of 
his account. At the present time this 
stands as the record for the longevity of 
seed, and owing to the nature of the 
Xelumbium seed, it is reasonable to sup¬ 
pose that they might retain their viabil¬ 
ity for such a period. However, in the 
case of wheat and similar seed supposed 
to have lived thousands of years, no cre¬ 
dence is to be attached to the sensational 
assertions as to their longevity. 
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