EXTRAORDINARY VITALITY OF CERTAIN SEEDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1905, Page 9

EXTRAORDINARY VITALITY OF CERTAIN SEEDS.

The length, of \lme seeds Trill preserve their vitality differs amazingly in. different plans. The seed* of the willow, for instance, will not germinate alter having once been dry, ajad their germinating power is lost in two weeks ev-en if during that inteTTal they have been kept fresh. The seeds of coffee do not germinate after liaving been kept far any eonsidetable lengtih of time. The grains of wheat lose their power and. strength after * lapse of seven .years, though wJieat over two centuries old has been quite »pablc of being used for food. The story of wheat" sprouting after having lain dormamt in Egyptian tombs for thousands of years, to say the least, sounds exceedingly dubious. No well authenticated instances of such iinds are extant, while among other articles sold by the Arabs to credulous travellers as coming out of the same tomb as the ancient wheat have been daMia bulba and. maize, the deposition of which, in fcke receptacle from which, they were said to have been taken, makes it necessary to believe that three thousand j'ears ago the subjects of Pharoah. were engaged in commerce with America. Rye ana wheat only 185 years old could not be induced, to germinaite, the place of th-i embryo being tilled with a slimy a". , putrefying liquid. When kept seclude 1 from light and dampness seeds have been known to keep for lengthened periods. The most unscientific observer has noticed how often plamfcs appear in old ground wnieh has been trenched which, have never appeared in such spots previously, and that after iires pass over localities plants equally strange to the neighbourhood appear. It is noticed that when an American forest is fired the trees that takv. the place of the burned ones are of a different species from those hitherto observed in that neighbourhood. After the great London tire in 16G6 the yellow rocket appeaied in great profusion for the first time in fche district swept by the fire. These facts,, which cannot be denied, have led to the theory that seeds may lie for long periods dormant and only spring into life when some stimulus, such as exposure to the sun, rain, or heat, is applied to tfrem. A scientist has recently discovered that an extensive tract of'land, at the silver mines of Laurium, in Greece, is covered by a luxuriant growth, of horned poppies belonging to a hitherto unknown species. These plants have shot up through soil which Has been covered bo the depth of ten feet vdth. the masses of cinder and slag thrown, out by the workmen in ancient times when the mines were worked by the Greeks, and which, have been recently disturbed in order that the imperfectly fused materials might be subjected te [further process of faision for the purgoae of extracting; tisar silver; cont-ea;^