Battle to grow 200-year-old seeds

The Millennium Seed Bank said it was an exciting discovery

Scientists are battling to grow 200-year-old seeds brought to the UK after the capture of ships from the Dutch East India Company.

The seeds were found in a red leather notebook in High Court of Admiralty papers in the National Archives.

Botanists at Kew Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex said it was normally very hard to germinate seeds this old.

But National Archive storage conditions meant there was a chance it would work.

More than 30 different types of seed were unearthed in the find.

'Great opportunity'

They are thought to include the King Protea, the national flower of South Africa, brown-beard sugarbrush and glossy-eyed parachute daisy.

"This is a very exciting find and a great opportunity for Kew," said Trevor Butler, of the Millennium Seed Bank, near Haywards Heath.

The seeds were wrapped in paper envelopes with scientific names inscribed in Latin.

The notebook was labelled Jan Teerlink from Flushing, Holland, who is believed to have collected the seeds from the Cape of Good Hope before being captured by the British in 1803.

The ship carrying the seeds is believed to have been called Henrietta, which had been on a voyage to collect goods from around the world.