Ch. X.] 1843—1858. 179 



G. D. to J. D. Booker. April 13th [1855]. 



... I have Lad one experiment some little time in progress 

 which will, I think, be interesting, namely, seeds in salt water, 

 immersed in water of 32 -33°, which I have and shall long 

 have, as I filled a great tank with snow. When I wrote last I 

 was going to triumph over you, for my experiment had in a 

 slight degree succeeded ; but this, with infinite baseness, I did 

 not tell, in hopes that you would say that you would eat all the 

 plants which I could raise after immersion. It is very aggrava- 

 ting that I cannot in the least remember what you did formerly 

 say that made me think you scoffed at the experiments vastly ; 

 for you now seem to view the experiment like a good Christian. 

 I have in small bottles out of doors, exposed to variation of 

 temperature, cress, radish, cabbages, lettuces, carrots, and celery, 

 and onion seed. These, after immersion for exactly one week, 

 have all germinated, which I did not in the least expect (and 

 thought how you would sneer at me) ; for the water of nearly 

 all, and of the cress especially, smelt very badly, and the cress 

 Beed emitted a wonderful quantity of mucus (the Vestiges* would 

 have expected them to turn into tadpoles), so as to adhere in a 

 mass ; but these seeds germinated and grew splendidly. The 

 germination of all (especially cress and lettuces) has been 

 accelerated, except the cabbages, which have come up very 

 irregularly, and a good many, I think, dead. One would have 

 thought, from their native habitat, that the cabbage would have 

 stood well. The UmbelliferoB and onions seem to stand the 

 salt well. I wash the seed before planting them. I have 

 written to the Gardeners' Chronicle^ though I doubt whether it 

 was worth while. If my success seems to make it worth while, 

 I will send a seed list, to get you to mark some different classes 

 of seeds. To-day I replant the same seeds as above after 

 fourteen days' immersion. As many sea-currents go a mile an 

 hour, even in a week they might be transported 168 miles ; the 

 Gulf Stream is said to go fifty and sixty miles a day. So 

 much and too much on this head ; but my geese are always 

 swans. . . . 



* The Vestiges of Creation, by R. Chambers. 



t A few words asking for information. The results were published in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle, May 26, Nov. 24, 1855. In the same year 

 (p. 789) he sent a postscript to his former paper, correcting a misprint 

 and adding a few words on the seeds of the Leguminosas. A fuller paper 

 on the germination of seeds after treatment in salt water, appeared in the 

 Linnean Soc. Journal, 1857, p. 130. 



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