My dear Sir

I send you herewith some specimens which may perhaps interest you, as you have so carefully studied the vars. of wheat. Any how they are of no use to me as I have neither knowledge or time sufficient. They were sent me by the Governor of the Province of Samara in Russia, at the request of D^r. Asher (son of the great Berlin publisher) who farmed for some years in the province.¹ The specimens marked Kubanka is a very valuable kind, but which keeps true only when cultivated in fresh Steppe-land in Samara, and in Saratoff.² After two years it degenerates into the var. Saxonica or its synonym Ghirca. The latter alone is imported into this country. D^r. Asher says that it is universally known, and he has himself witnessed the fact, that if grain of the Kubanka is sown in the same steppe-land for more than two years it changes into Saxonica. He has seen a field with parts still Kubanka and the remainder Saxonica. On this account the government in letting steppe-land contract that after two years wheat must not be sown until an interval of eight years. The ears of the two kinds appear different as you will see, but the chief difference is in the quality of the grains. D^r. Asher has witnessed sales of equal weights of Kubanka and Saxonica grain, and the price of the former was to that of the latter as 7 to 4. The peasants say that the change commences in the terminal grain of the ear. The most remarkable point as D^r. Asher positively asserts is that there are no intermediate varieties; but that a grain produces a plant yielding either true Kubanka or true Saxonica. He thinks that it would be interesting to sow here both kinds in good and bad wheat soil and observe the result. Should you think it worth while to make any such trial, and should you require further information, D^r. Asher whose address I enclose, will be happy to give any in his power.

I hope that I have not troubled you uselessly and remain, my dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin.

P.S.— | I received Rimpau safely.³