To John Lubbock 2 September [1862]1
Cliff Cottage | Bournemouth | Hants
Sept 2d
Dear Lubbock.—
Hearty thanks for your note.2 I am so glad that your Tour answered so splendidly.—3 My poor patients got here yesterday & are doing well;—& we have a second House for the well ones.—4
I write now in great Haste to beg you to look (though I know how busy you are, but I cannot think of any other naturalist who wd be careful) at any field of common red clover (if such a field is near you) & watch the Hive Bees: probably (if not too late) you will see some sucking at the mouth of the little flowers & some few sucking at the base of the flowers, at holes bitten through the corollas—5 All that you will see is that the Bees put their Heads deep into the head & rout about.— Now if you see this, do for Heaven sake catch me some of each & put in spirits & keep them separate.— I am almost certain that they belong to two castes, with long & short probosces. This is so curious a point that it seems worth making out.— I cannot hear of a clover field near here.—
Pray forgive my asking this favour, which I do not for one moment expect you to grant, unless you have clover field near you & can spare hour
In Haste— Yours most sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Emma Darwin (1915): Emma Darwin: a century of family letters, 1792–1896. Edited by Henrietta Litchfield. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1915.
Summary
Hive-bees and clover.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3708
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
- Sent from
- Bournemouth
- Source of text
- DAR 263
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3708,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3708.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10