[803] Dureau de la Malle, An. des Sci. Nat. tom. xxi. p. 53. Sept. 1830.
[804] Disc. Prél. p. 139. sixth edition.
[805] Ibid.
[806] Güldenstädt, cited by Pritchard, Phys. Hist. of Mankind, vol. i. p. 96.
[807] History of British Quadrupeds, p. 200. 1837.
[808] Ann. du Muséum d'Hist. Nat. tom. i. p. 234. 1802. The reporters were MM. Cuvier, Lacépède, and Lamarck.
[809] I by no means wish to express an opinion that seeds cannot retain their vitality after an entombment of 3,000 years; but one of my botanical friends who entertained a philosophical doubt on this subject, being desirous of ascertaining the truth of three or four alleged instances of the germination of "mummy wheat," discovered, on communicating with several Egyptian travellers, that they had procured the grains in question, not directly from the catacombs, but from the Arabs, who are always ready to supply strangers with an article now very frequently in demand. The presence of an occasional grain of Indian corn or maize in several of the parcels of grain shown to my friend as coming from the catacombs confirmed his scepticism.
[810] Phil. Zool., tom. i. p. 227.
[811] L'Origine et la Patrie des Céréales, &c., Annales des Sciences Natur., tom. ix. p. 61.
[812] Smith's Introduction to Botany, p. 138, edit. 1807.