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In 1879, in an effort to determine the longevity of certain seeds left in soil, botanist William Beal buried 20 glass bottles filled with sand and seeds from a variety of plants, including Verbascum, Lepidium virginicum, and Stellaria media. Since then, some of the bottles have been retrieved in the periodic checks of seed viability researchers are conducting. After 60 years had elapsed, most of the seeds in those bottles stopped germinating, but Verbascum seeds have remained viable, including those from a bottle dug up in 2021 by Margaret Fleming, Lars Brudvig, and colleagues.