To Francis Darwin 22 October 1873
Down
Oct 22 1873
My dear Frank
Thanks for the capital case of inheritance. I want you to do a job for me at Kew, that is if Hooker to whom I will write, can manage it on a Sunday.1 It is to look thro’ the dried collection of Desmodium, and to observe.
(1) whether many of the species bear only 3 leaflets, & the usual relative size of the 2 laterals to the terminal one.—2
(2) I see in Steudel that next to D. gyran is D. gyroides;3 look closely to the leaves of this, and if they are nearly like those of D. Gyrans please to make a plan with compasses, of the length of the main petiole, of the sub-petioles of the leaflets, of the leaflets themselves, & of the large terminal leaflet—
(3) I judge by the names that some of the species are climbers,4 & I want to know whether any bear tendrils. Especially I want to know whether the lateral leaflets have ever been converted into tendrils, whilst the terminal one is still a leaflet: I know of no such case, perhaps Hooker may.
In any species in which the 2 lateral leaflets are very small, observe whether the apex is produced into a free point, as if the leaflet had once existed as a tendril. Take this paper with u as a mem—
& you had better take compasses if you have them.
Yours affection— | Ch. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Climbing plants: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.
Steudel, Ernst Gottlieb. 1841. Nomenclator botanicus: seu: synonymia plantarum universalis, enumerans ordine alphabetico nomina atque synonyma, tum generica tum specifica, et a Linnaeo et a recentioribus de re botanica scriptoribus plantis phanerogamis imposita. 2d edition. 2 parts. Stuttgart and Tübingen: J. G. Cotta.
Summary
Lists observations he would like FD to make on the dried species of Desmodium at Kew.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9106
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Francis Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 271.3: 10
- Physical description
- LS(A) 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9106,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9106.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21