To A. S. Wilson   8 January 1880

My dear Sir

I am much obliged for your interesting letter. I am glad that you have solved the puzzle of the outer seeds.—¹ I am very unwilling to believe in Nature blundering, and I imagined that the rootlets, which so clearly manage to escape from between the glumes, perhaps afterwards entered, consumed and digested these seeds. I therefore looked twice at ears which had been in the ground for several months, but could not detect the entrance of any radicles. I was, however, astonished at the whiteness of these seeds when cut into two, yet never thought about their being alive and capable of subsequent germination!

I quite agree with you about the great improbability of sudden transformations, | My dear Sir, | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

P.S. I have ceased to take in Gardeners Chronicle, from want of time to read it. Will you therefore send me a post card when you know number of Journal containing your Report.²