246 BOTANY [CHAP. X 



Letter 578 the seeds of A. angustifolia in rich soil. He says he knows 

 the A. hastata, and that it is very different. Until your last 

 note I had not heard that Mr. Kemp's seeds had produced 

 two Polygonums. He informs me he saw each plant bring up 

 the husk of the individual seed which he planted. I believe 

 myself in his accuracy, but I have written to advise him not to 

 publish, for as he collected only two kinds of seeds and from 

 them two Polygonums, two species or varieties sAAtriplex and 

 a Rumex have come up, any one would say (as you suggested) 

 that more probably all the seeds were in the soil, than that 

 seeds, which must have been buried for tens of thousands of 

 years, should retain their vitality. If the Atriplex\\^\ turned 

 out new, the evidence would indeed have been good. I regret 

 this result of poor Mr. Kemp's seeds, especially as I believed, 

 from his statements and the appearance of the seeds, that 

 they did germinate, and I further have no doubt that their 

 antiquity must be immense. I am sorry also for the trouble 

 you have had. I heard the other day through a circuitous 

 course how you are astonishing all the clodhoppers in your 

 whole part of the county : and [what is] far more wonderful, 

 as it was remarked to me, that you had not, in doing this, 

 aroused the envy of all the good surrounding sleeping parsons. 

 What good you must do to the present and all succeeding 

 generations. 1 



Letter 579 To J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Nov. I4th [1855]. 



You well know how credulous I am, and therefore you 

 will not be surprised at my believing the Raspberry 2 story : 

 a very similar case is on record in Germany viz., seeds from 

 a barrow ; I have hardly zeal to translate it for the Gardeners 

 Chronicle? I do not go the whole hog viz., that sixty and 

 two thousand years are all the same, for I should imagine 

 that some slight chemical change was always going on in a 

 seed. Is this not so ? The discussions have stirred me up to 



1 For an account of Professor Henslow's management of his parish 

 of Hitcham see Memoir of the Rev. Jo/in Stevens Henslaw, M.A., by the 

 Rev. Leonard Jenyns : Svo, London, 1862. 



2 This probably refers to Lindley's story of the germination of 

 raspberry seeds taken from a barrow 1600 years old. 



"Vitality of Seeds," Gardeners' Chronicle, Nov. I7th, 1855, p. 758. 



