VITALITY OF SEEDS. 
289 
indeed says that the heath “ had never been touched by the 
hand of man.” Perhaps not, after it became a heath ; but 
what evidence is there to control the general presumption 
that this heath was preceded by a forest, in whose shade the 
vegetables which dropped the seeds in question might have 
grown ? * 
Although, therefore, the destruction of a wood and the 
reclaiming of the soil to agricultural uses suppose the death 
of its smaller dependent flora, these revolutions do not exclude 
the possibility of its resurrection. In a practical view of the 
subject, however, we must admit that when the woodman fells 
a tree he sacrifices the colony of humbler growths which had 
* "Writers on vegetable physiology record numerous instances where 
seeds have grown after lying dormant for ages. The following cases, men¬ 
tioned by Dr. Dwight (Travels, ii, pp. 438, 439), may be new to many 
readers: 
“ The lands [in Panton, Vermont], which have here been once culti¬ 
vated, and again permitted to lie waste for several years, yield a rich and 
fine growth of hickory '(Carya porcino]. Of this wood there is not, I be¬ 
lieve, a single tree in any original forest within fifty miles from this spot. 
The native growth was here white pine, of which I did see a single stem 
in a whole grove of hickory.” 
The hickory is a walnut, bearing a fruit too heavy to be likely to be 
carried fifty miles by birds, and besides, I believe it is not eaten by any 
bird indigenous to Vermont. 
“ A field, about five miles from Northampton, on an eminence called 
Rail Hill, was cultivated about a century ago. The native growth here, 
and in all the surrounding region, was wholly oak, chestnut, &c. As the 
field belonged to my grandfather, I had the best opportunity of learning 
its history. It contained about five acres, in the form of an irregular 
parallelogram. As the savages rendered the cultivation dangerous, it was 
given up. On this ground there sprang up a grove of white pines cover¬ 
ing the field and retaining its figure exactly. So far as I remember, there 
was not in it a single oak or chestnut tree. * * * There was not a sin¬ 
gle pine whose seeds were, or, probably, had for ages been, sufficiently 
near to have been planted on this spot. The fact that these white pines 
covered this field exactly, so as to preserve both its extent and its figure, 
and that there were none in the neighborhood, are decisive proofs that cul¬ 
tivation brought up the seeds of a former forest within the limits of vege¬ 
tation, and gave them an opportunity to germinate.” 
19 
