Seeds of Lite

There is a recurrent journalistic fable that grains of wheat taken from ancient Egyptian tombs have grown into new wheat plants. Scientists take no stock in it. The maximum length of time in which wheat grains retain their germinating power is well established as about 25 years. In cases where people have made the experiment in good faith and obtained positive results, it is probable that they were bubbled by fakers who sold them modern wheat for ancient.

The Thompson Institute of Botanical Research at Yonkers, N. Y., founded with a $3,000,000 endowment by Colonel William Boyce Thompson (TIME, Oct. 6) has been conducting a series of experiments on the longevity of seeds. The greatest record so far established has been with seeds of the lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). These seeds were taken from the dried-up bed of a lake in Manchuria. The lake-bed had been covered with loess, seolian deposits of dust from the Gobi Desert. The depth and stratification of the deposit enabled a rough calculation of the age of the seeds to be made. The minimum age was set at 120 years and the probable age between 200 and 400 years. The seeds were germinated and the plants are now growing in tanks, with leaves floating on the surface of the water. It will be two or three years before they will blossom.

Colonel Thompson himself was in Egypt at the time that the tomb of TutankhAmen was opened and secured a promise from the Egyptian Government that he should have some wheat if any were found. But not a grain has been discovered. He obtained, however, 200 or 300 grains of pedigreed wheat from other tombs, averaging 3,000 years in age. A little of this was planted to make certainty of its infertility doubly sure. Under the most favorable conditions, it failed to sprout. Some of the wheat was ground to flour, however, and chemical tests made. Faint reactions were obtained showing that the life-producing chemicals were still there in small quantities, but greatly impaired.