PHENOMENON OF THE BATTLEFIELD.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11843, 27 May 1919, Page 7

PHENOMENON OF THE BATTLEFIELD.

LONG-BURIED SEEDS BEGIN TO BLOOM. The broken battlefields of France are yielding a strange phenomenon (says the London Daily Mail ox March 16h). Flowers, not knwon within living memory, are breaking out on the scarred surface and in shell-holes and dug-outs. Three of these flowers of strange species were seen by an old peasant going home for his mid-day meal and botanists have since become interested in the discovery, which, it is believed, have sprung from seeds buried in the depths of the earth for decades past. A well-known bontamst in London discussing the phenomenon, said“ There is evidence that seeds may be buried for a large number of years awaiting the time of germination. It is known tfiat seeds have been buried for upwards of 60 years without losing their power of germination. It has been argued that seeds of corn and wheat buried with Egyptian mummies thousands of years ago have been planted out in the 20th century and have germinated in the ordinary way. It is quite possible that strange flowering plants—that is strange to the local inhabitants— are now flowering in the French battlefields. The heavy shell-fire which has torn up the earth may have created conditions for their growth after lying dormant so long. Botanists everywhere are watching with interest the botanical results of the upheaval in France, the new conditions of the soil and the possible future vegetation of the districts. Dr Winifred Brenchley, of Kothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, is now conducting special researches into this very matter.” SPRING ON THE SOMME. Nature, too, is having her way with the most devastaed areas in the Somme battlefields. Even Delville Wood—that place of terrible memory—is changing. ! “I have just visited this place again” (writes a correspondent). “Long before we got there we could see that a great change had come over the whole region. Something intangible and yet intensely real. It took some puzzling out till one could see what had happened. Afterwards one realised that it was the dreadful, debasing silence that had altered. Before it was the silence of midnight now it was the hush before the dawn. The horrible grey of the long hills had changed to a faint green with the approach of spring. In High Wood many of the stumps were actually budding. It was fascinating this gradual reanimation of Nature, which no pest can kill. Everything was quiet, yet vaguely you felt that everything was intensely busy, growing. In a broken, one-wheeled gun-carriage too far gone years ago to serve as a trophy or even for the Salvage Corps to worry about, a little bird had commenced to build its nest. It watched us from a ragged lump of concrete near by, as we stood near, waiting for us to pass rather impatiently, so that it could get on with its work. The Somme battlefield region is very busy nowadays, though the inhabitants have not y et gone back. ’ ’