To J. S. Henslow   [4 November 1843]

My dear Henslow

I sent that weariful Atriplex to Babington, as I said I would, & he tells me that he has reared a fac-simile by sowing the seeds of A. angustifolia (I see Hooker¹ considers the angustifolia is a variety of A. patula[)] in rich soil.— He says he knows the A. hastata & that it is very different.— Until your last note I had not heard that M^r Kemp’s seeds had produced 2 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 seed—& from them 2. Polygonum, 2. spec. or var. of Atriplex & a Rumex have come up, anyone w^d 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, sh^d retain their vitality— If the Atriplex had turned out new, the evidence would indeed, have been good.—² I regret this result of poor M^r Kemps seeds, especially as I believe from his statements & the appearance of the seeds, that they did germinate & 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 clod-hoppers in your whole part of the country & 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 & all succeeding generations—

Farewell, my dear patron | C. D.