Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-07-17
The Vitality of Seeds.

A subscriber who was interested in
the articles that the Companion has
printed recently in regard 10 the vitali-
ty of seeds sends us some frst-hand
information that she gathered as the
fruit of several careful experiments.
Ny father was 4 naturalist, she
writes, and especially interested in
botany. He took long, daily rambles
through the woods. and nearly always
brought home specimens of plant life
for further study He was also very
fond of fishing. and after his death in
June. 1901. my mother packed away
the boxes that contained his favorite
reels and other small fishing tackle in
an old trunk, filed with a miScel-
laneous assortment of family treas
uses. When the trunk passed into my
keeping | left it undisturbed except
for an occasional oyerhauling 10 keep
it free OF moths.
In 1912 | was giving the trunk such
an overhaulng when one of the boxes
came open and lot Of little envelopes
containing fshhooks fell out. On put
ting them back, found that four OF the
envelopes contained seeds, all careful
" labeled in my fathers handwriting;
blue palmetto. vburnum, or black haw.
crataegus. or hawthorn, and water
melon AS do not think there was
any blue palmetto in the vicinity when
he died, he must have gathered those
seeds during a trip to south Florida the
preceding fall. He must have saved
the watermelon seeds that same sum-
mer, as owing to the condition Of his
health he had no garden in the spring
of 1901. The hawthorn and black haw
seeds he probably gathered during
some of his walks the same fall. All
of the seeds had without question lain
in the box for twelve years when |
found them in 1912.
took out some of the blue palmetto
seeds. soaked them a few hours in
slightly warm water, and then planted
them in box of prepared soil; but
although tended the box carefully
not one Of the seeds ever came up
Two years later planted few more
with the same result. At that time ]
cut open a few of the seeds and found
the inside dry and powdery, without
a possibility of termination.
In March, 1917, ! planted some OF
the watermelon seeds in the back yard.
| then cleared out one end of porch
hox. worked over the soil and planted
in il some of the hawthorn and vibur-
nun seeds. Some time later two
plants that looked like hawthorn ap-
peared. but they finally proved to be
cherry laurel that must have blown in
to the box from some trees a little way
down the street finally worked
through the soil in the box with my
fingers and discovered every one OF the
seeds Just as had planted them. On
breaking them open, ! found the inside
OF each dry and dead.
After the above exPerimnets with
four widely different varieties OF seeds,
at twelve. fourteen and seventeen
years. | am not inclined to believe in
the long continued vitality OF seeds.
Would it not be a good plan TO place
seeds in each of a number Of suitably
labeled, screw-topped bottles and then
in two years plant the contents Of one
bottle and the next year plant the con-
tents of another, and so on up TO ten
years, or even longer? In that way II
could be determined just when the
vitality Of the seeds ceases.