TITE VITALITY AYD DISTRI13TTTT0X OF SEEDS 
301 
Flora of Cheshire , 1S99, p. 54; and Amphlett and Ilea, Botany 
of Worcestershire , 1909, p. 59, xvi.). Nor must we overlook the 
fact that many of our sea-coast plants (Halophytes) occur also upon 
mountain heights, far removed from the sea-coast. 
In 18S5 Mr. J. W. White published (Proc. Linn. Soc. 1884-85, 
p. 108) a most interesting paper on the germination of seeds after 
prolonged submersion in salt water. The Hock Harbour authority 
started dredging operations in the Avon, near Bristol, and dredgings 
were deposited in a disused stone quarry in the Avon Gorge. Imme¬ 
diately after the deposit was levelled in 1882, a luxuriant crop of 
varied vegetation appeared, consisting of some 50 species, native to 
the banks of the Avon above and below Bristol hut not previously 
observed near the old quarry ; with them was a sprinkling of mari¬ 
time plants. The onty explanation possible was that these seeds had 
been washed down from the higher reaches of the river, and had lain 
dormant for a time, immersed in salt water, still retaining their 
vitality. 
Some thirty years ago the Colchester Corporation carried out 
dredging operations in the Colne estuary, and the dredgings were 
spread over the adjoining marshlands. Almost immediately a luxu¬ 
riant crop of a somewhat rare and very local plant, Lepidium lati- 
folium , covered these deposits ; previously it had grown in small 
groups about the river-side and adjoining dykes; it would appear 
that from these groups the river-bed had become stocked with seeds. 
About the same time an abundant growth of the same species 
appeared near a small landing-stage on a narrow branch of the 
Blackwater estuary at Salcot and Yirly, in Essex. Upon enquiry I 
was informed that the river-bed had been dredged and the dredgings 
deposited upon that spot. The explanation is doubtless the same as 
above. 
The appearance of Spartina Townsendi, first recorded at South¬ 
ampton Water by II. & J. Groves (Rep. Bot. Exchange Club, 1880- 
81, p. 37), and its remarkable spread along the south coast to Poole 
Harbour, is well described by Cary and Oliver ( Tidal Lands , 1918, 
p. 177). 
Mr. J. Adams has contributed to the Irish Naturalist (xiv. 80 ; 
1905) some researches upon seeds he found underlying a pasture of 
twenty years’ standing. He removed the turf in various parts of the 
field to a depth of three inches, and collected the subjacent soil to a 
further depth of three or four inches, altogether obtaining enough 
earth to fill a garden-barrow. The seeds contained in this soil were 
carefully removed by washing through sieves of various meshes, etc., 
and were examined and identified; 829 were found, representing the 
seeds found under an area of approximately one square yard : no 
doubt many seeds escaped, and the number would have been con¬ 
siderably multiplied if he had penetrated the ground to a depth of 
from 9 to 12 inches ; for, as we know, the action of worms and rain¬ 
fall carries seeds down to a considerable depth. The seeds identified 
represented 22 species, “such as Wheat, Ryegrass, Polyyonum Con¬ 
volvulus , and P. aviculare , Runic x crispus, Ranunculus acris, 
