234 END OF THE PEESIDENTIAL TERM 



the plants belong to large and very cosmopolitan Orders, 

 well represented in S. Africa. Ascension does not help ; 

 its only shrubs are of South African affinity and St. Helena, 

 and these are, if I remember aright, its only flowering plants 

 (except tropical weeds). St. Helena has affinities with Tristan 

 d'Acunha. If we could only make the insects antedate the 

 plants I would understand the argument. Is the Entomology 

 of the S. African Mountains known ? especially of those 

 Mts. of the W. coast. — Ever yours affectionately, 



Jos. D. Hooker. 



To the Same 



January 18, 1877. 



Wheat brought by Nares from Smith's Sound, where the 

 Polaris left it some five years ago, has germinated splendidly. 

 I am now planting a lot of various seeds which I sent out 

 and which have been exposed to cold of 60°-70°. A grain 

 of maize that was with the Polaris wheat has also grown ; 

 this being properly a tropical plant is remarkable. 



What a rum thing living protoplasm must be, so quickly 

 to decompose in some seeds and resist change in others. 

 That the freezing of its watery constituent (if it, water, is 

 a constituent) should not affect its vitality is very wonderful. 

 A good man might make a splendid thesis on ' vitality ' 

 in the abstract. Jas. Salter x has been writing to me about 

 another series of experiments on burying seeds, but I do 

 not think he is prepared to carry it out. I should be disposed 

 to attack the problem another way — viz., to experiment on 

 means of prolonging vitality of seeds which are notoriously 

 short lived. 



It seems an age since I heard of you all.— Ever 

 affectionately yours, 



Jos. D. Hooker. 



1 Samuel James Augustus Salter (1825-97), or James Salter as he called 

 himself, received his medical education at King's College, London, and after 

 graduating as M.B. at the University of London, became partner with his 

 uncle Thomas Bell, dental surgeon. He was elected F.L.S. 1853, and F.R.S. 

 1863, and on his retirement from his profession occupied himself with horti- 

 culture at Basingstoke. He was the first to make the remarkable observation 

 of perfectly formed pollen-grains in the nucellus of the ovary (see Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. 1863, xxiv. p. 143). He published his Dental Pathology and Surgery in 

 1874. 



