THE VITALITY OF SEEDS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "spsorszottn Sut,—Having just read the interesting article on " The Vitality of Seeds" in the Spectator of October 24th, I venture to send you the following extract from the letter of a young friend of mine who visited parts of the Roman wall this summer. Alluding to the excavations at Chester, she writes :—" The excavated walls were covered with a little purple flower•, which we were told had only sprung up since the stones were uncovered. Old Cailford (the guide) called it Erica hispanica, and said it must be (so some botanist had told him) a memento of the Asturian legion quartered there about 140 A.D." It would be extremely interesting to learn whether this plant has been found anywhere else in England.
I may mention a case which came under my own notice in which a gardener who was trying to raise the Osmunda regalia from seed carefully scalded the earth beforehand, with the result that numbers of other fern seedlings came up and very few of the Osmunda.—I am, Sir, &c., Arisaig, B.S.O., N.B. C. C. ASTLEY.
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