THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
397 
years old. Mr. A. Decandolle experimented on 368 speeies 
of seeds fifteen years old; of these only seventeen genera and 
four of the species came up, and the general results of a 
series of experiments carried out at the instance of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science were, 
that only a small per-centage of seeds came up of so small 
an age as twenty years, while in no instance did seeds ger¬ 
minate that had been kept for two centuries; and reasoning 
from this the late Professor Henslow was led to doubt the 
case which had been relied on so much of the growth of 
mummy wheat by Mr. Tupper from seed supplied him by 
Sir Gardner Wilkinson.^^ He further states that in a sample 
from the same source which he had inspected grain by 
grain, he 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 decomposition 
and partial charring. Upon inquiry, he was able to ascer¬ 
tain that the 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 jars had taken place. In samples 
supplied by Sir G. Wilkinson to the late Bobert Brown 
for the purpose of experiment, the latter had found in it a 
few grains of Indian corn; he thought it not at ail improbable 
that the samples he had examined, and those furnished by 
Sir G. Wilkinson, might have formed portions of the same 
stock.'’^— Reports, British Association, I860. 
The fecundity of plants is a subject of great interest, as 
many important matters are explained by its due considera¬ 
tion. We therefore give a list of the numbers of seeds we 
have estimated some of our common plants to produce: 
Common Red Poppy 
. 60,000 
Bladder Campion 
. 24,000 
Sow Thistle 
. 25,000 
Groundsel 
. 48,750 
Yellow Toadflax 
. 47,200 
Larger Plantain 
. 24,000 
Common Nettle 
. 100,000 
Eoxglove 
. 640,000 
This list will be sufficient to show the enormous powers of 
reproduction some plants possess, and from its consideration 
we may easily conclude how it is that weeds continue to 
infest the soil, for if one plant, nay often a single flower 
should ripen its seeds, enough would be produced to after- 
