To Alexander Goodman More 18 May [1862]1
Down Bromley Kent [Leith Hill Place]
May 18th
My dear Sir
If you shd. have leisure & your health shd. be good, & if again you shd. feel any little interest on subject, perhaps you would try the experiment on Ep. palustris. Flowers shd. be chosen in middle of spike, & marked by a thread; & when the capsules are nearly ripe, each shd. be separately folded up in paper; & another capsule from an unmutilated flower close by from same spikes shd. be gathered & folded up in paper. as standard of comparison.— I would then endeavour to estimate whether there was any difference in fertility in the flowers possessed of the distal portion of the labellum, & those deprived of it.— I shd. much like to see this point ascertained;2 but of course you must not think of troubling yourself unless you shd. feel some little curiosity on the subject.
Many thanks for your note.—3
Pray do not think of acknowledging this | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Of course the distal portion of labellum would have to be removed from flowers not fully expanded.—
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 AGM to experiment on Epipactis palustris.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3560
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alexander Goodman More
- Sent from
- Leith Hill Place Down letterhead
- Source of text
- Royal Irish Academy (A. G. More papers RIA MS 4 B 46)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3560,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3560.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10