Vitality of Gorse-seed

Abstract

BY way of supplementing my letter to NATURE of September 26, 1918 (vol. cii., p. 65), on the above subject, it may be of interest to record the fact that the seedlings arising from seed which has lain dormant in the soil for a quarter of a century have produced vigorous plants. A small part of the 20-acre field was not reploughed owing to its steepness, and the gorse seedlings which came up on it after the war-ploughing of the winter 1917–18 have been allowed to grow. They are now in their fourth season of growth, and are good-sized bushes averaging 2 ft. in height, which have been this spring a mass of bloom, like the gorse generally in this district and, I believe, throughout the country.