To Francisco de Arruda Furtado   12 September 1881

Dear Sir

Sir J. Hooker writes to me that he shall be very glad to see the mountain plants which you have collected, & will give you the names of them, if you wish it.¹ The parcel sh^d. be directed to

“Sir J. Hooker

Royal Gardens

Kew

London.—”

Sir J. Hooker tells me one very interesting fact, which is well worth your investigating, namely that “huge trunks of Cypresses (Cupressus) have been found there (he does not say in which island) “buried in the ground; yet the Cypress is extinct in the islands”. He thinks that the remains of other plants might be found in the same sites, & this w^d. be very interesting & a good description of the place where the Cypress-trunks have been found is much wanted.² The experiment may be a foolish one, but I sh^d. get some of the earth from the same bed, far from the surface or the side of any little cliff, & keep this earth damp in a warm place, & most carefully covered by a bell-glass, & observe whether any plants sprung up; for I believe, contrary to the opinion of the best botanists, that seeds buried deep in the ground sometimes, retain their vitality for a long time.—

I wrote to you a few weeks ago.—³

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

P.S. Sir J. Hooker speaks in another part of his letter, of the case of the Cypress trunks being a wonderfully interesting one.