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‘Longevity of Seeds.—An interesting instance of prolonged vitality 
in the éase of the seeds of a Leguminous species is recorded in a 
letter addressed to Kew by Sir William Herschel, Bart. Sir 
William writes; under date 22 Jan., 1912 :—“ ALBIZZIA LOPHAN- 
tHa. An interesting case of germination and flowering of A. 
lophantha after the seeds had been lying dormant 68 years induces 
me to write to you. The seeds were part of a packet received by 
Sir John Herschel from the Cape of Good Hope in 1843 and 
preserved, since his death in 1871, in his cabinet. Seven plants 
have been successfully reared in 1910 and 1911, of which one, 
two years old is now some ten or eleven feet high and has flowered 
abundantly (not seeded) this autumn. From several letters that 
have passed between Professor Vines and myself, I have gathered 
much interesting information about the provenance of these seeds 
and from Sir John’s correspondence it is clear that so far back as 
1834-5 he was studying them in Africa. I find also now a letter 
from (Sir) Joseph Hooker acknowledging (to a Mrs. L.. Wilson) the 
receipt at Kew, 16 or 26 March, 1844, of what he describes as 
‘interesting seeds .... gathered in Australia’ passed on to him 
as from Lady Herschel. I have little doubt they formed part of 
the 1843 packet.” 
In the same letter Sir William was so good as to offer to send to 
Kew the flowering example of A. lophantha referred to above ; at 
the same time he asked whether the letter from Sir Joseph Hooker 
could be verified. 
n the collection of correspondence at Kew no reference has been 
found to this matter, but in one of the Record Books there is the 
following entry in March, 1844 :—* Received from Lady Herschel 
48 papers of seeds from S..... 
own hand.” That the seeds did actually come from Australia in 
the first instance is almost certainly correct. But it was apparently 
known at Kew that these seeds had been sent to Sir John Herschel 
from South Africa, as explained in Sir William Herschel’s letter ; 
the writer of the entry in our Record Book, undecided as to 
whether the word “ Africa” or “ Australia” should under the | 
circumstances more properly follow the “S.,” left his entry 
incomplete for the moment and never subsequently had his difficulty 
satisfactorily cleared Ls The main interest of the correspondence 
es, however, as Sir William Herschel points out, in its affording 
what appears to be an authentic record of “a flowering two-year 
old plant aftér 68 years dormancy ”. of its séed pe 
Sir William’s promise has ‘been fulfilled and this interesting 
plant has now been added to the collection at Kew. 2 
