The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-07
SEED STORY EXPLODED.
Grain from Ancient Mound and
Tombs Will Not Grow.

Washington Post.
At the last meeting of the Biological So
ciety of Washington Mr.. ]. w. T.. Duvel
read a paper entitled 1.-THE Vitality of
Seeds" exploding a fallacy which, as he
himself states. is believed in even by many
scientific workers. That fallacy is the notion
that seeds found In mummy cases and
tombs and known to be several hundred,
and even one thousand years old, will, if
planted, terminate. He called attention TO
the fact that for the last thirty years a
story has appeared periodically In the
newspapers to the effect that some one out
in the far West has obtained corn from
the grave Of some cliff dweller-corn that
has lain in the tomb for thousands OF
years, or, perhaps, the story is OF wheat
that some person has taken from the case
of an Egyptian mummy of the first dynas-
~, 1900 years before Christ, and planted
These accounts, he added, are always OF
the most detailed and circumstantia char
acter, and oftentimes, in one way or anoth-
er, bear the name of some man of science.
One man somewhere in the West, who said
he had found an ear of corn In the grave OF
an aborigine, buried under a large mound,
and had raised a crop from it, did a land
office business advertising the seed of his
prehistoric Orn.
The truth of the matter, he said, was
that the vital energy of seeds expires
quickly, so that the stories which have
gone the rounds about Egyptian wheat
and prehistoric cliff dweller corn. germinat-
ing after a lapse of thousands of years.
were falsehOods pure and simple. Where
or how they originated was a mystery, but,
like every other scientific humbug, the
story and as much vitality and longevity
as the miraculous grain which 1t described.
Some twenty years ago, he said. the Brit
ish Association for the Advancement of
Science, as a result of the members see
ing, hearing and reading a great deal of
this nonsense about Egyptian wheat
%sprouting, decided to investigate the matter
thoroughly.
The results of this investigation have only
recently been made known. The association
experimental with the seeds of some 3sz
species, including wheat and corn, and dis
covered that out of this entire let there
were only three or four species that would
germinate after a period of fifteen years.
Or this entire 3S2 species all were treated
alike; that is to say, placed I'm dry, dark
and cool places. where the conditions were
exactly the same as in the case of the grain
found in mummy cases. The great majority
of species lost ali vitality after a period of
four years, and the few that did terminate
at the end of the ~ffteen-year period, pro-
duced very weak and feeble plants. These
were the seeds of very hardy and vigorous
plants Indigenous to desert countries, where
the struggle for existence is very hard. and
not wheat and corn which were among the
earliest to lose their vitality. Moreover,
OF the entire number of seeds of the three
varieties which produced after fifteen years
In storage, only a few produced plants.
Alfalfa, a variety of forage plant grown
extensively in desert regions especially IN
Colorado and California;. and the seed OF
which is remarkable for its vitality, had
been preserved in alcohol and shut off from
the air by an Italian scientist, who sue
ceeded in raising a few plants from seed
thus kept sixteen years. but the seed Of the
plant preserved in the same manner for sew
enteen, eighteen, nineteen and twenty years
did not germinate, and such also was the
experience of the British association, which
body found that not one of the 3S2 species
would terminate after remaining In storage
for seventeen or twenty yeas. although
they did succeed in obtaining a few sickly