thickly shaded spots, destitute of all other vegetation except the moss that carpets the surface of the soil. Holes are dug under this moss, from which the earth is taken at depths successively of eight, sixteen, and twenty-four centimetres. The specimens taken from these several depths are cultivated separately. The cultivations, prolonged for more than three months, have all ultimately given rise to plants the seeds of which must of necessity have remained under the earth for a greater or less length of time.
M. Peter has carefully indicated in detail the plants that corresponded to each of the specimens of earth on which he operated. It resulted from the experiments that the specimens of earth from very old forests gave plants of the woods, while those from forests of more recent date yielded species the nature of which was manifestly related to the previous disposition of the soil—that is, plants of the fields or the meadows, according as forestation had replaced one or the other of these methods of cultivation. While he is extremely reserved as to the probable duration of the abode of the seeds in the soil, M. Peter concludes in these words: "Although the experiments in cultivation just described do not furnish a solution to the question of the length of time during which seeds at rest preserve their faculty of germinating, the conclusion results from this demonstration that for many field and meadow plants this duration may considerably exceed a half century."
These researches of M. Peter's deserve careful attention, and it is to be hoped that they will, without delay, be imitated in other countries and different kinds of land, for they may reveal very important facts in biology and prehistoric botanical geography. Alphonse de Candolle[1] insisted a few years ago on the desirability of making soundings beneath the snows of the Alps with a view of recovering vestiges of the vegetation anterior to the Glacial period. It is to be regretted that no one has carried out this idea, for the facts I have just summarized almost permit us to hope that research of this kind may lead to the recovery of still vital seeds dating from very remote epochs.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique.
- ↑ Extract from the Archives des Sciences physiques et naturelles.
