Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/168

 252 NOTES AND QUERIES. [*» s. iv. Sept. 23, m ~<v A Sonnet on Dryden (9th S. iv. 142).—This seems to refer to Dryden's alleged unsuccess- ful courtship of his cousin, Honor Dryden. See Scott's 'Life' (quoting Mitford), p. 25. Edward H. Marshall, M.A. Hastings. Mummy Peas (9lh S. iv. 145, 198).—The fol- lowing fact may not be without interest. Early this summer some peas were found which had been in a cupboard five or six years. Remembering the tales about mummy wheat, <fec, I had these seeds soaked in water for three days, and put them in the ground, hoping for a row of peas. But though the place was watered, yet after three months none of the seed has sprouted or come up. Arthur Hussey. Wingham, Kent. This question is old and interesting. I doubt if it is yet settled. Certainly many such specimens are mere impostures ; but is it certain that mummy seeds have never germinated ? A very high authority in agri- culture told me he thought forty years the limit of the life of a seed germ. He did not give his reasons. What is it that makes a seed incapable of germinating? (1) Decay, caused by the simultaneous presence or oxygen and moisture and a suitably high temperature; (2) exposure to extreme heat and perhaps to extreme cold. Now neither of these conditions exists within a mummy in a mummy pit. There is practically no moisture, no wind, no change of temperature. Why, then, should seed germs perish there in forty years, and not in thirty-nine t After a forest fire a certain pink flower (Epilobium) grows up, which Canadians call the fire flower. Whence come its seeds ? from the air by winds ? But the name im- plies that the plant is rare except on burnt ground. So we may ask, Whence come the seeds of the rare flowers on railway embank- ments and on heaps of dried mud from the bottoms of ponds ? It is well known that different seeds can endure different degrees of low temperature without perishing. Groundsel seeds, for ex- ample, are very tenacious of life at very low temperatures. The high heat (212° F.) of boil- ing water is never approached in nature, except in geysers or volcanoes. This heat, then, is wholly abnormal. No doubt stove- drying kills seed germs. Hence the many sample bottles of seeds in Rothanisted Labora- tory are of no use for answering this question, for they have been stove-dried before sealing up. I suggest that the Rotharasted trustees or the Linna^an Society should bottle in quite dry and hermetically sealed flasks consider- able quantities of good seed of several species, including wheat and peas and fire-weea, have the bottles buried deep in dry sand, and leave directions for opening one sample every thirty years and testing the vitality. Whether the interstices of vessels in which the experimental seeds be stored should be filled with absolutely dry air, or whether all air should be excluded by the Torricellian vacuum, I leave to those more skilled in vegetable physiology. Dry air would, I think, be best. Some might say, If rapid drying at great heat destroys a germ, will not slow drying at moderate heat destroy it? But does drying go on within the waxed and varnished cover- ing of a mummy ? The small quantity of air among the cerements will soon approach saturation if there be moist bodies contiguous, and therefore drying will go on more and more slowly till it ceases altogether. T. Wilson. Harpenden. "Oof" (9th S. iv. 160).—It is as certainly courting failure to explain oof without refer- ence to its full form ooftish as it would be to attempt the derivation of " bus " and " cab " without taking into account " omnibus " and " cabriolet." An etymology which does not sin in this respect has already once been suggested in these columns (8th S. iv. 333). The Westphalian word to which Prof. Skeat draws attention is well worth investigation, however, on its own merits, as are all the Low German terms for "money," whether in the abstract or in the form of particular coins. I have collected a number of examples in Dutch and Flemish. Thus in the market of Bruges 1 have heard the piece of ten centimes called a clute, while at Thourout it is a dikken. Curiously enough, the last word means a " thick 'un," a term applied in English to a very different coin. "Pak ze vooreen dikken" means in Flemish " take 'em for a penny," not "take 'em for a sovereign." The five-franc piece is termed paard oog, or peerd oog (horse's eye). See an article of mine, ' A Novel Holi- day,' in Belgmvia, 1896. James Platt, Jun. Would not npin-iijenanswer to our "money- spinner," a small red spider of active habits ? A. H. More correctly 'oof, but if the prodigal h is rehabilitated in the affections of its kin, hoof. In sporting language 'oof, or 'ooftish, is synonymous with, money, because it is the