Germinating history: 200 year old seeds

[kirsty b]

Found an interesting story on national archive website earlier about some seeds that were found in the notebook of a merchant who collected them on a trip to the Cape of Good Hope in 1804.
Botanists at Kew and some colleagues from Millenium Seed Bank have managed to germinate some and identfy them.

Full story on http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/127.htm

[Snadger]

Nearest I can get to that is when my grandfather died I helped my Dad dispose of the stuff in his house! There was a packet of Parsnips seeds in one of his drawers from World War One era! . My dad was a bit of a gardener and said "They wont be any good now!" and through them on the garden. Just like Jack in the Beanstalk they all germinated and there were parsnips popping up all over! Just out of interest, the newspaper that was used as carpet underlay in those days had the headlines about the sinking of the Titanic!