Darwin Correspondence Project

15 Marine Parade | Eastbourne

Oct. 5th

My dear Sir

I thank you for two notes. It was a capital thought your sending me the gum itself (so ingeniously bottled or quilled); I tried it on 3 leaves, & it produced no effect; & I tried thicker gum on 5 other leaves with no effect, & I subsequently proved that these leaves were good ones. If a leaf is feeble & does not secrete copiously, the gum dries & draws together all the hairs which it has touched; & this, I imagine, must have been cause of the apparent inflection in your case. At last I have come to a puzzler, for I find Carb. of Soda causes inflection; but I have sent to London for pure C. of soda, & as that sold by Druggists is not pure. But I strongly suspect I have come across a poser. I am, however, trying my experiments in another fashion, which may throw light on subject.—   I find the glands at end of Hairs are absorbers as well as secreters. The change which takes place in the Hairs after inflection is very curious. The currents & movements in the cells strike me in my ignorance as marvellous.—

You are very kind in your second note to say that I must not apologise for all the trouble which I have caused; but pray thank Mr Croker for enquiring about the Dionæa.— Also please give my best thanks to Sir William for his wish to oblige me; I shall be intensely curious to examine the leaves; if I cannot get a plant. If the Dionæa commonly catches only small fry, I shd. not be surprised at a fat fly being too much for its digestion; at least I have found bits of raw meat often, indeed I think generally, kill the leaf of the Drosera. I shd like to hear whether Croker is pretty certain of this fact.—

I am very glad to hear that you are experimentising on the leaves in water. I have long thought that naturalists make far too few experiments.—

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

Do you possess a copy of my ``Origin of Species''; if you do not, I should much like to have the pleasure of sending you one.—