The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-02-12
VITALITY OF SEEDS.
IMPORTANT RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC
INVESTIGATION.


Instances of Seeds Holding Suspended
Their terminating Powers For One Hun
dred and Fifty Years and Then Springing
to Life Under Proper Treatment.
Not long ago it was generally believed
that grains of wheat from Egyptian tombs
had been made to gorminate, and there
seemed therefore to be no limit to the
dormant life Of seed. When these stories
were proved to be without foundation,
thore was general tendency to disbelieve
all of n similar kind. Now, however, it
seems established that seeds may live, un-
der proper conditions, a great many years,
perhaps for centuries, and when we con-
slider that under these circumstances the
protoplasm within the seed actually main
tains its vitality, this fact'is very signifi-
can't. On the question of how seeds ao-
complish this, much light has been thrown
by recent experiments of G. de Candolle,
the French botanist, which he describes in
LIE Revue Scientifque. Some parts of
his article are as follows:
"Seeds that have retained their germi-
mating power are said to possess latent
life.' This expression lacks precision, for
we may ask whether the life of the seeds
is completely arrested or il it is only re-
tarded, and the answers would not be the
same in all cases.
"We owe to Messrs. Van Tieghem and
Bounier the following experiment, which
proves that seeds can, in fact, live for a
certain time this retarded life. Three lots
of the same number of peas and beans
were placed, the first in the open air, the
second in a sealed glass tube containing
ordinary air, the third in q sealed tube
containing only pure carbonic acid gas.
At the end of two years the seeds of the
first lot had sensibly increased in weight,
and nearly all had retained their germinat-
ing power. Those preserved in the con-
fined air had increased less in weight and
terminated in less number than the pre-
ceding. Moreover, the air contained in
the tube with them had changed in COM
position. Its proportion Of oxygen had
fallen to 11.4 per cent, and there was
mixed with it 3.S per cent of carbonic acid.
AS to the seeds kept in the carbonic acid,
none of them could germinate, and their
weight had not changed"
Experiments are then described by M.
de Candolle that relate to the wonderful
power of resistance to cold displayed by
seeds. Experiments already made by 9th
ers show that these seeds may germinate
after having been exposed to tempera-
ture of ,00S kelow zero, centigrade. Now
the researches Of Pictet in his celebrated
low temperature laboratory in Berlin show
that at such point chemical action total
ly ceases. Hence the active life Of the
seeds in question must have been really
suspended, and nevertheless they were
able to germinate when planted. In M.
de Candolle's own experiments seeds were
subjected once day for 118 days to tenn
perature of 37S to 53s below zero, for 8 to
20 hours at time, and Notwithstanding
this harsh treatment, they sprouted when
planted. If the life Of the seeds, however,
were really suspended they must be able
to live out of contact with air for certain
time In order to see whether they could
do this, NJ. de Candolle kept seeds under
out killing them.
In this state Of suspended life seed is
in chemical condition, according to M.
de Candolle, somewhat resembling that OF
an explosive mixture is, 1t Is ready
for chemical action (growth), but that ac-
tion will not begin until the surrounding
conditions are right. In the explosive
these are conditions Of dryness, tempera-
ture, etc., just as they aae with the seed.
A seed, then, is little Bomb, only wait
ing to be touched off to release its store of
energy and send out discharge in the
shape of sprout. M. de Candolle re-
marks on this as follows:
"This state of chemical and vital inertia
may last q long time, perhaps even indef-
nitely. 1t is at least, as 1t seems to me,
the only way of explaining the preserva-
tion of seeds during a great number OF
years. Cases are known where they have
terminated after period so long that 1t
is impossible to believe that they have
continued in life, properly speaking, In
the interval, no matter how slowly the
processes of life may have gone on. Here
are some remarkable examples:
"a. P. dc Candolle mentions seeds that
sprouted very we'll after moro than 60
years.
"Girardin has seen beans sprout that
had lain in the storehouse Of Tournefort
more than 100 years.
"In 1850 Robert Brown sowed, from
curiosity, some seeds from the collection
of Sir Hans Sloane, where they had re-
mained for more than $50 years. He sue
ceeded in making several germinate, in
particular one of Nelumbium speciosum
"a water lily, of which the plan has been
preserved in the British museum, where I
saw it few years since.
1.-THE alleged germination Of mummy
wheat Is, as is now generally known, but
d baseless fable. 1t appears, besides, that
the wheat was always sterilized before be-
ing put into the sarcophagi, which pre-
oluded all possibility Of its growth. But
to make up for the falsity of this story
divers we'll authenticated facts show that
seeds can preserve their power Of sprouting
after an extremely prolonged sojourn be-
meath the earth-that is to say, in shelter
from atmospheric influences.
1.-THE most extraordinary case Of this
kind is that observed several years since
by Professor De Heldreioh, director of the
Botanic garden at Athens. While botan-
izing in the neighborhood of the mines Of
Lauriuln this savant discovered, in 1878,
q glaucium that he took at once to be new
species, and he described it under the
name Of glaucium. This plant made Its
appearance on a piece of land from which
had recently been removed thick layer of
rubbish coming from the ancient working
n the neiphhOrin0 mines This layer
must have been at least 1,50O years old.
Unless we believe in spontaneous genera
tion, 1t seems necessary to suppose that
this glaucium must be species that e1-
listed long ago in the locality, whose seeds
had been preserved in the earth and rub
bish that covered them. Literary Di-