cxxx
Journal of Proceedings.
greater part of it has become covered with vegetation. I append a list
of plants (fifty in number), which made their appearance on the mud,
as soon as its surface had become firm enough to walk upon. A part of the
mud was removed three years ago, and the whole was taken out and carried
away ten years ago. In the winter a stream is occasionally turned into
the pond. There were several other plants in too young a stage to be de-
termined ; and what was surprising, an absence of some of the commonest
plants, charlock (Sinapis arvensis. Linn.), for instance, which is one of
the most plentiful weeds, the seeds of which must have been deposited
in profusion in the ditches which supply the stream in winter, which
occasionally debouches into the pool. The seed of this plant is so
exceedingly tenacious of vitality, that a farmer once told me he had
twelve acres, to use his own expression, " so poisoned with it," that he
determined to put it down as pasture for sheep feed ; after eleven
years, he ploughed this field up again, and the weed came up as thick as
ever it had been. I remember many years ago, in opening a Saxon
800 to 1,000 years old barrow, in what had been the stomach of its incum-
bent, there was a quantity of small seeds, of which Professor Henslow
took possession. I asked him, three years after, if he had tested, or
discovered any vitality in them ; he said, " If you pay a visit to the
Botanic Gardens at Cambridge you will see that their produce is a plenti-
ful crop of wild raspberries." We hear of wheat growing after being
enclosed in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, but life existing
in seeds for 3,000 years requires a good stretch of belief. In earth
thrown out from a depth in digging a well, generally some
plant makes its appearance which is not common, or has not
been seen before in the neighbourhood, and it is not impro-
bable that the seeds of the plant Erucastrum inodorum, for the discovery
of which Mr. Joshua Clarke obtained the gold medal of the Royal
Horticultural Society, were thrown out with the soil in making the deep
railway cutting at Wenden.
List of Plants Referred to.
Achillaea millefolium,
Agrostis stolonifera.
Agrostis alba
Ajuga reptans.
Anthemis cotula.
Aretium majus,
Bellis perennis.
Capsella bursa-pastoris.
Carduus arvensis.
Carduus acaulis.
Carduus ?
Chenopodium hybridum.
Dipsacus sylvestris.
Epilobium hirsutum.
Erysium vulgaris.
Galium palustre.
Geranium pratense.
Gnaphalium ulignosum.
Hyoscyamus niger.
Lapsana communis.
Mentha aquatica.
Mercurialis perennis.
Myosotis palustris.
Nasturtium officinale.
Nepeta glechoma.
Plantago major.
Potentilla reptans.
Potentilla anserina.
Polygonum aviculare.
Polygonum convolvolus.
Pulicaria dysenterica.
Ranunculus bulbosus.
Ranunculus sceleratus.
Burner paludosus.
Burner pratensis.
Rumex pulcher.
Salix caprea.
Salix viminalis.
Scandix pecten.
Scrophularia aquatica.
Senecio viscosus.
Senecio vulgaris.
Solanum dulcamara.
Solanum nigrum.
Sonchus oleraceus.
Ulmus campestris.
Urtica dioica.
Verbascum thapsus.
Verbena officinalis.
Veronica beccabunga.