to
Summary
Thanks CVN for reference to the Comptes Rendus [Académie Française].
Mentions CVN’s work on Cucurbitaceae and notes that he (CD) has quoted extensively from it in Variation.
Hopes to send paper on Lythrum [Collected papers 2: 106–31] soon.
Mentions exchange of photographs.
Transcription
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Dec 8
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your kind letter & Congratulations.f2 I am very glad to possess your photographf3 I enclose one of myself made of me by one of my sons, for I have no other.f4
I am particularly glad that you have given me the reference to the comptes Rendus”, for the subject referred to interests me in an especial manner, & I have obtained very few authentic facts.f5
I am glad to hear that you are still working on the Cucurbitacæ;f6 I have lately quoted extensively from your most interesting papers on this order, in a work which I am preparing on variation.f7 I hope soon to send you a paper on Lythrum which I trust may interest you;f8
with Sincere thanks & respect | I remain dear Sir | yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
- f1
- The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from C. V. Naudin, 6 December 1864.
- f2
- See letter from C. V. Naudin, 6 December 1864.
- f3
- See letter from C. V. Naudin, 6 December 1864 and n. 3.
- f4
- CD probably refers to the photograph taken by his son William Erasmus Darwin in June 1864 (see letter from W. E. Darwin, [19 May 1864] and n. 8, and frontispiece to this volume).
- f5
- Naudin 1864. See letter from C. V. Naudin, 6 December 1864 and n. 5.
- f6
- See letter from C. V. Naudin, 6 December 1864 and n. 6.
- f7
- Naudin is cited frequently on Cucurbitaceae in Variation.
- f8
- CD refers to `Three forms of Lythrum salicaria‘. The paper was published on 12 December 1864 (General index to the Journal of the Linnean Society). Naudin’s name appears on CD’s presentation list for the paper (see Appendix III).