My Dear Sir,

I now take the liberty of sending you a cutting from the Gardeners’ Chronicle, being what I dare say will be my last report regarding Kubanka and Saxonka wheat.¹ You may see that I have not found any alterations taking place, except such as came about from greater or less supply of food; although at the same time I confess it is not so very easy to determine what is an alteration. Last year, for example, I had stools of barley carrying up to 130 ears from one seed; and if such a plant is compared with another stool carrying only 1 stunted ear, has anything supervened in the way of specific change?² I suspect that we must look rather to the insidious accumulations of long cosmical periods than to mere cultivation, for alteration of forms—

There is an undecided point incidentally referred to in your last Book to which I have recently been giving some attention, viz. what is the cotyledon of a grass embryo? I have come to the conclusion that the scutellum and not the sheath of the plumule ⁠⟨⁠i⁠⟩⁠s the cotyledon.³ Richard and others say that the scutellum does not grow in germination: I have many mounted specimens showing that the scutellum of the Oat grows in germination to three times the length ungerminated,—that it has a vascular midrib, and frequently acquires a greenish tint.⁴ The secondary buds which succeed the plumule have also sheaths, very nearly the same as the sheath of the plumule or first bud. I notice that Mr. Henslow gave you an abstract of views held on this subject (The Movement of Plants p. 62) I might perhaps venture to ask him for a copy of it.⁵

With my very warmest thanks for your kindness in sending me the Russian wheats, | I am | yours very sincerely | A Stephen Wilson.