Henderson Stanley emerged into the public spotlight only gradually, a result of careful managing of the process of introduction to human society engineered by his guardians. Although Stanley’s origin provided him with truly unique insight into the vegetable kingdom, such was the nature of his upbringing to the age of nine, that there were many barriers to social intercourse with and acceptance into the human world.

Indeed, many aspects of Stanley’s behaviour still strike the observer as odd, such as his predilection for keeping his feet interred in a basin of earth whenever possible, and his reluctance to perform the normal pedestrian function of those appendages. (This despite the fact that Stanley has on several occasions proved himself perfectly capable of walking around). He is also terrified of boiling water and seems able to detect its presence even through a thick wall and locked doors.

These somewhat odd traits go hand in hand with his special insights and abilities. The consequence of having been raised up in the wild by a patch of potatoes after becoming lost in the wilderness as a mere babe is apt to place its stamp on a man, and Stanley has not escaped this. But rather than expose him to criticism or dark mutterings, these very oddities of behaviour make Stanley one of the Seedsmen’s most valuable agents in the field. Stanley, transported about the bush in a litter, his feet comfortably ensconced in a basin of Hertfordshire topsoil, has few equals as a plant hunter.