Dear and honoured Sir

You will excuse me that I have not answered before your very kind letter of August last, but I had nothing to communicate to you that was worth your while.¹ I was very pleased that you were contented with my experiments on Oxalis Valdiviana, and surely I shall follow your advice in behalf of further experiments about this matter.² I hope that your health has become now better again that you may be able to publish all your important observations.

With very great interest I have read your last work on the Origin of Man,³ and in reading a great many questions on botanical matters have come to my mind, but most of them will not be easy to answer. Perhaps you will accept it kindly when I say that one of the very great merits of all your works is, that they lead to a great many questions and observations, nobody has thought or dreamed of before!

You will have received my little paper on the fruit of Composits, that I have sent you some time ago, another on the origin and the mechanism of expansion of the tails of seeds is in preparation, but it will last some time before, though small, it will be printed.⁴ The means with which seeds are provided for their spreading seem to me very interesting and perhaps I shall make and publish in future days some more experiments and observations on this matter.⁵

As I remember that you asked me some time ago for several seeds, I send you the catalogue of our botanical garden; perhaps you find one or the other species that you would like to cultivate, so you will be so kind as to point them out on the catalogue and send it back again.⁶

Hoping that your health is recovered now I remain | dear Sir | yours | respectfully | Hildebrand