To Daniel Oliver 8 October [1861]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Oct 8th
My dear Sir
I am perfectly ashamed to trouble Hooker again.— Would you have kindness to look at well-opened flower of Stanhopea saccata & see whether any nectar is in hollowed out base or cup of Labellum; or in other species of Stanhopea, if they have hollowed out base or cup to Labellum.—
I have particular reason to enquire; but I daresay the plant will have none, though it ought to have some.—2 But Nature, as Agassiz says, does not lie,3 & therefore it must have nectar,—else a theory of mine is wrong which is clearly impossible!—
In Haste | Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Summary
Asks DO to look for nectar in Stanhopea saccata labellum. CD’s theory predicts nectar should be present, but afraid there is none.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3279
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Daniel Oliver
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 261.10: 31 (EH 88206014)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3279,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3279.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9
