Dear Darwin,

I am much pleased to have had an opportunity of examining the Atriplex raised from seeds found at so great a debth by M^r. Kemp.¹

The specimen has all the appearance of having been grown upon a very richly manured or muddy soil, but is, as I believe I may say with the utmost confidence, a variety of the A. angustifolia. I have seen plants growing on the mud of salt marshes or close to a dung-hill that exactly resembled it in all points. The usual state of the plant is so different that I cannot wonder at botanists who have not made this unattractive genus their study refering the specimens to a wrong species.

A. hastata is quite a different plant. I should much like to see M^r. Kemp’s specimens refered by Henslow to A. patula. ²

I inclose the specimen and have only to add my earnest hope that your health is now restored to its former state of goodness.

Believe me to be | Most truly yours | Charles C. Babington—