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[Darwin annotation: The Record October 15. 1840 Mem. S. America [Indian] Corn Irish Domestic corn diff-]

VITALITY OF SEEDS-

Mr. Tupper has published the following interesting account in the morning papers: -

"Having reason to believe that some erroneous statements have appeared in print relative to the subject of this letter, I think that it will be proper in me, as well as not uninteresting to your readers, if I thus give to the public, through you, the following authentic account of my success in having raised corn from seed presumably three millenaries old:

"In 1838 Mr. Pettigrew, the well-known lecturer in Egyptian antiquities, gave me out of two small glasses in his private museum six grains of wheat and as many of barley, furnishing me at the same time with the following information as regards their history:

Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, during his recent travels in the Thebald, opened an ancient tomb (which had formerly remained unvisited by man during the greater part of 3,000 years), and from some alabaster sepulchral cases therein took with his own hands a quantity of wheat and barley that had been there preserved. Portions of this grain Sir G. Wilkinson had given to several of his antiquarian friends, and among them to Mr. Pettigrew, who, as I have already stated, made me a sharer in the venerable harvest. Until the spring of 1840 the twelve corns of which I so become possessed remained among certain contemporary bronzes and images in their separate paper box, but about that time, finding myself in the country and much occupied in horticultural pursuits, I bethought myself of those ancient seeds, and resolved to try my fortune in rearing them.

Now, the question being strictly a question of identity, and more or less also involving personal character, I shall perhaps be pardoned if I endeavour to satisfy the unbelieving mind by descending to a few humble details of my care and caution. I ordered four garden-pots of well-sifted loam, and, not content with my gardener's care in sifting, I emptied each pot successfully into an open newspaper and put the earth back again, morsel by morsel, with my own fingers. It is next to impossible that any other seed should have been there. O then (on the 7th of March last) planted my grains, three in each pot, at the angles of an equilateral triangle, so as to be sure of the spots where the sprouts would probably come up, by way of additional security against any chance seed unseen lurking in the soil.

Of the twelve one only germinated, the plant in question, the blade first becoming visible on the 22d of April, the remaining eleven, after long patience, I picked out again; and found, in every instance, that they were rotting in the earth, being eaten away by a number of minute white worms. It is a curious speculation, by the by, whether this might not have been a re-awakening of dormant animal life; for it is by no means improbable that the little maggots, on which we might build such high argument, were the produce of ova deposited on the grains, at a period involving the very youth of time, by some patriarchal flies of ancient Egypt. This, however, by parenthesis. My interesting plant of wheat remained in the atmosphere of my usual sitting-room until change of place and air seemed necessary for its health, when I had it carefully transplanted to the open flower bed, where it has prospered ever since. The first ear began to be developed on the 5th of July; and, although it may disappoint expectation to find that its appearance is, in most respects, similar to that of a rather weakly plant of English wheat – that called by farmers "bearded" (which, be it noted, I have since learned is sometimes known by the name of Egyptian), still I have no hesitation in expressing my own certainty that it is the product of one of the identical corns given to me, as I have before stated, by Mr. Pettigrew.

A second ear has made its appearance since this was written, and both have assumed a character somewhat different from all other known varieties. After all, why should not common wheat claim an ancient ancestry as any other kind? and why should not the banks of the Nile have teemed, though perhaps more luxuriantly, with a harvest similar to those we now see waving on the banks of hoary father Thames? Moreover, what else, let me ask, could have seen expected than that a seed should produce its like? for I have until now omitted to state, what may easily be verified by inspection of the remaining quantities of ancient seed now in the possession of others, that the grain in question only differ from modern wheat in their brown and shrunk appearance –the seeming result of high antiquity, and non-exposure to the air.

The slight differences nevertheless observable are, that the ears are less compact, the grain rather plumber, and the beards more thornlike than happens in common cases. It would perhaps be puerile were I to explain the various methods taken by me to protect the plant; as sticks against the wind, lace nets against birds and insects, and a large bottomless garden-pot circling it about as a rampant against slugs: let it suffice to know, that all proper are, excluding that worst of cares, overcare, was given to it. The small size and weakness of the plant may in one light be regarded as collateral evidence of so great an age, for assuredly the energies of life would be but sluggish after having slept so long; however, the season of its sowing, spring instead of autumn, will furnish another sufficient cause; but after making all due allowances for this drawback, I still think it very improbable that, supposing the plant a modern one, our rich soil at Albury should have produced so lightly. There are two ears on separate stalks; they are respectively two-and-a-half and three inches long, the former being much blighted, and the stalk is about three feet in height.

"In conclusion, I take occasion to remark, that homely as the theme may in itself be, the growing of a grain of corn, small as may be accounted the glory of a success in which man's mind can have had almost nothing to effect, and little as I can have had to communicate, still the subject will be admitted by all to be one of no common interest. If – and I see no reason to disbelieve it – if this plant of wheat, now fully developed, be indeed, the product of a grain preserved since the time of the Pharaohs, we moderns may, within a little year, eat bread made of corn which Joseph might have reasonably thought to store in his granaries, and almost literally snatch a meal from kneading trough of departing Israel. Time, which has been no element to the mummied seed, is conquered by so weak a weapon as a straw, and its infancy and dotage meet in friendly astonishment at a humble banquet of Pharaonic bread.

"Sir Gardiner Wilkinson having courteously sent me some more of the veritable ancient seed since he heard of my success, I shall hope, next year, to be able to produce two small crops, the harvest from my new grains so resuscitated, and if I have again so great good fortune, the additional product of those ancient seeds.

"Nothing, I think, needs to be added but the signature of the deponent, which I am very happy to give as that of,

"Sir, your obedient servant,

"MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER.

"Albury, Guilford, Sept. 1840."