VITALITY AND GROWTH OF SEEDS BURIED IN SOIL.

W. J. BEAL.

IN the autumn of 1879, nearly ten years ago, I buried in bottles
seeds of twenty-one kinds of plants. The seeds were mixed in
sand taken from three feet below the surface of the soil. The seeds
were mixed in the soil which loosely filled the bottle, and buried
about twenty inches below the surface.

About two months ago, these seeds and the soil were removed to
the botanical laboratory and kept moist most of the time.

Owing to an oversight at one time, I am unable to give the exact
number of seeds of some of the sorts which germinated, still there
seems to be enough to warrant a brief statement of the results. Some
seeds of the following ten species, and probably few others, made a
good start in germination:

Amaranthus retroptexus, L. Pigweed.
Brassica nigra Kerh. Black Mustard.
Capsella Bursa-pastoris Manch. Shepherd's Purse.
Lepidium Virginicum, L. Pepper-grass.
Anthemis Cotula, L. Mayweed.
Oenothera biennis, L. Evening Primrose.
Polygonum Hydropiper, L. Smartweed.
Portulaca oleracea, L. Purslane.
Setaria glauca, Beano. Pigeon-grass. Fox-tail.
Stellaria media, Smith, Chick-weed.

Some experiments made in burying acorns and black walnuts at
different depths in the soil, induce me to believe that some of the
seeds which did not retain their vitality, might have done so, had the
sand been well packed and had the seeds been planted deeper than
twenty inches.

ACORNS BURIED DEEPLY IN SAND
In an experiment begun ten years ago, where black-oak acorns had
been buried in sand in sod ground about fifteen inches below the
surface, every one was found decayed at the expiration of two years.

Four years ago, lacking two months, I buried in well drained sand,
some black walnuts and Slack-oak acorns. They had been recently
gathered and were supposed to be in good condition. They were
buried all the way from very near the surface to a depth of three feet.
After they had remained nearly two years, some of them were examined with the following results: Some of the walnuts and acorns
planted only a few inches beneath the surface, had come up the next
summer after planting, while those planted from about eight inches to
two feet or a little over, below the surface, had all decayed.

All the walnuts deeply planted had decayed, but some of the acorns
planted from two to three feet below the surface were still alive-or
rather, the young plants were alive. They had probably started soon
after planting, as the cotyledons were exhausted, their nourishment
having been used in developing roots and pushing up an ascending
axis.

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The figures illustrate, two-thirds natural size, the appearance of some of the
young oaks as they appeared when taken from the ground, except that the
lower end of the roots in several cases is not represented in the drawings.