416 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [Chap. VI 



Letter 320 it rises in complexity ; but it strikes me as really odd, seeing 

 in this instance eminent botanists and zoologists starting from 

 reverse grounds. Pray kindly bear in mind about impregna- 

 tion in bud : I have never (for some years having been on the 

 look-out) heard of an instance : I have long wished to know 

 how it was in Subularia, or some such name, which grows 

 on the bottom of Scotch lakes, and likewise in a grassy 

 plant, which lives in brackish water, I quite forget name, 

 near Thames ; elder botanists doubted whether it was a 

 Phanerogam. When we meet I will tell you why I doubt this 

 bud-impregnation. 



We are at present in a state of utmost confusion, as we 

 have pulled all our offices down and are going to rebuild and 

 alter them. I am personally in a state of utmost confusion 

 also, for my cruel wife has persuaded me to leave off snuff for 

 a month ; and I am most lethargic, stupid, and melancholy in 

 consequence. 



Farewell, my dear Hooker. Ever yours. 



r „ ,„, To J. D. Hooker. 



Letter 321 J 



Down, April 19th [1855]. 



Thank you for your list of R.S. candidates, which will be 

 very useful to me. 



I have thought a good deal about my salting experiments, 1 

 and really think they are worth pursuing to a certain extent ; 

 but I hardly see the use (at least, the use equivalent to the 

 enormous labour) of trying the experiment on the immense 

 scale suggested by you. I should think a few seeds of the 

 leading orders, or a few seeds of each of the classes mentioned 

 by you, with albumen of different kinds would suffice to show 

 the possibility of considerable sea-transportal. To tell whether 

 any particular insular flora had thus been transported would 

 require that each species should be examined. Will you look 

 through these printed lists, and if you can, mark with red cross 

 such as you would suggest ? In truth, I fear I impose far more 



1 For an account of Darwin's experiments on the effect of salt water on 

 the germination of seeds, see Life and Letters, II, p. 54. In April he wrote 

 to the Gardeners' Chronicle asking for information, and his results were 

 published in the same journal, May 26th and Nov. 24th, 1855 ; also in 

 the Linn. Soc. Journal, 1857. 



