ion. I see from your letter (though I do not suppose it is worth
referring to the subject) that I could not have expressed what I meant
when I allowed you to infer that Owen's rule of single organs being of
a higher order than multiple organs applied only to locomotive, etc.; it
applies to every the most important organ. I do not doubt that he would
say the placentata having single wombs, whilst the marsupiata have
double ones, is an instance of this law. I believe, however, in most
instances where one organ, as a nervous centre or heart, takes the
places of several, it rises in complexity; but it strikes me as really
odd, seeing in this instance eminent botanists and zoologists starting
from reverse grounds. Pray kindly bear in mind about impregnation in
bud: I have never (for some years having been on the look-out) heard of
an instance: I have long wished to know how it was in Subularia, or some
such name, which grows on the bottom of Scotch lakes, and likewise in a
grassy plant, which lives in brackish water, I quite forget name, near
Thames; elder botanists doubted whether it was a Phanerogam. When we
meet I will tell you why I doubt this bud-impregnation.

We are at present in a state of utmost confusion, as we have pulled
all our offices down and are going to rebuild and alter them. I am
personally in a state of utmost confusion also, for my cruel wife has
persuaded me to leave off snuff for a month; and I am most lethargic,
stupid, and melancholy in consequence.

Farewell, my dear Hooker. Ever yours.

LETTER 321. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, April 19th [1855].

Thank you for your list of R.S. candidates, which will be very useful to
me.

I have thought a good deal about my salting experiments (321/1. For
an account of Darwin's experiments on the effect of salt water on the
germination of seeds, see "Life and Letters," II., page 54. In April
he wrote to the "Gardeners' Chronicle" asking for information, and his
results were published in the same journal, May 26th and November 24th,
1855; also in the "Linn. Soc. Journal," 1857.), and really think they
are worth pursuing to a certain extent; but I hardly see the use
(at least, the use equivalent to the enormous labour) of trying the
experiment on the immense scale suggested by you. I should think a
few seeds of the leading orders, or a few seeds of each of the classes
mentioned by you, with albumen of different kinds would suffice to show
the possibility of consider