To Gardeners’ Chronicle   [before 29 December 1855]

As you have lately published such full and interesting details on the case of the long entombed Raspberry seeds,¹ you may like to hear that a somewhat similar instance has been observed on the Continent. Gærtner (Versuche über die Bastarderzeugung, s. 157)² states on the authority of Jouannot that seeds from the graves of ancient Gauls, of the date of the introduction of Christianity (probably at the time of Clodowig in the third or fourth century A.D.) germinated and produced Heliotropium vulgare, Centaurea cyanus, and Trifolium minimum. Gærtner gives, as reference, Froriep Notizen, B. XLIII., No. 946, p. 348. It seems that no known botanist looked to the correctness of these names. C. Darwin.