Chapter 233

I sent that weariful Atriplex to Babington, as I said I would, and he tells me that he has reared a facsimile by sowing 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 Polygomuns, two species or varieties of Atriplex 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 had 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. (578/1. For an account of Professor Henslow's management of his parish of Hitcham see "Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow, M.A." by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns: 8vo, London, 1862.)