My dear Sir,

Thanks for your kind note, but I take it that the burnet may have other enemies besides slugs, &c,—e.g., man, for it costs a lot of money annually among high class farmers to eradicate the burnet by “spudding” out the plants, from among the sanfoin; therefore, I should fancy that those plants, which so closely resembled the sanfoin, as to escape the eyes of the men employed to “spud” them out, would stand a far greater chance of reproducing its form, and so on ad libitum.¹ So also with the seed. A farmer’s first question on buying sanfoin seed is—or should be, “has it burnet amongst it”? If, by chance there should be some seed (as there often is) that so closely resemble the sanfoin seed, as to escape detection in a large sample, surely it would be to the advantage of the plant.

Then again when the burnet was in bloom, those which bore heads of flowers most resembling in shape and color the blooms of sanfoin, would certainly stand a better chance of escaping being pulled up, and thus the mimetic form would surely reproduce itself—

With renewed thanks, | Believe me, dear Sir, | Yours very truly, | Henry Reeks—

C. Darwin, Esq^re., M.A., F.R.S. | &c— &c—