318 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
at its normal height, and had now germinated when opportunity 
offered. The observation is the more emphatic, since the receding 
of the pond-water in 1880 was a very exceptional occurrence which 
had excited much comment in the neighborhood, and all the cir- 
cumstances attending the appearance of the clover-plants pointed 
directly to the presence of a store of seeds which must have been 
laid down when the place was covered with water. 
The foregoing instance of the preservation of clover-seed under 
water is manifestly similar to those reported by Delius* in Ger- 
many, and by Professor S$. W. Johnson+ of New Haven. ‘The 
German example was that of a pond which was laid dry at inter- 
vals and sown with summer grain. One spring a great quantity 
of white clover and Swedish clover sprang up, much thicker it is 
said than would have been the case if the seed had been sown pur- 
posely, and the bed of the pond was covered with clover-plants. 
In the Connecticut case, cited by Prof. Johnson, a farmer put 
upon a worn-out pasture some mud taken from a cove on the Con- 
necticut River, where ‘‘ the mud was under water the year round,” 
and was surprised to see white clover come up quickly in the pas- 
ture where the mud had been strewn. As Professor Johnson has 
remarked, in describing the foregoing example, Nobbe and Haen- 
lein { have tried methodical experiments upon the power of clover 
and a variety of other seeds to resist the action of the water. On 
placing a number of white-clover-seeds in contact with water at a 
temperature of 65° to 68° F., under circumstances favorable for the 
germination of the seeds, they found at the end of ten days that 
64 seeds remained hard and ‘‘ lifeless”; but, as time went on, 
8 of these residuary seeds softened and sprouted at intervals 
ranging from the 12th to the 247th day after they had been placed 
in the water; 8 of the seeds decayed and the other 48 remained 
hard after 292 days soaking. In experiments on red clover ( 7’. 
pratense), twice repeated, 30 and 10 seeds, respectively, out of a 
thousand did not swell in 156 days, when kept moist, at 65° to 
70° F. Of the other 970 and 990 seeds, 919 and 927, respectively, 
swelled on the first day, and the others at intervals ranging with 
tolerable uniformity from the 3rd to the 156th day. In two 
* Cited by Nobbe in his ‘‘ Handbuch der Samenkunde,” Berlin, 1876, 
p- 114 note. 
+ ‘Report Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 1879,” p. 123. 
t “Die landwirthschaftlichen Versuchs-Stationen,” 1877, 20. 71; and 
Nobbe in his ‘‘ Handbuch der Samenkunde,” p. 112. 
