My dear Sir

I thank you for your very kind letter, & all the trouble which you have taken in making such excellent sketches of Aldrovanda.¹ It is very good of you to offer to send me specimens next summer; but D^r Hooker came here two days after I had written to you, & by a strange coincidence he had received the day before plants from Germany, & has sent me some.² I immediately cut open a leaf, & saw everything exactly as you have described it.³ The plants have very few good leaves, & these will not open, which I much regret as I should like to try a few experiments. I have placed the terminal buds under different temperatures in hopes of forcing them forward.

I have observed the structure of Dionaea only so far as would aid my observations on the functions of the several parts; & in regard to the mechanism of the movement, I have made only a few superficial observations.⁴ This is your own subject, & I well remember how interested I was some years ago by your observations on the stamens of certain Composita.⁵ I hope therefore that you will publish, & it is much too generous on your part to think of delaying, on my account. I am glad that we do not differ about the valve of Utricularia, & that I misunderstood your account.⁶ I have just found out from Hooker that my chief work has been on a very rare British species viz U. neglecta though I have observed U. vulgaris.⁷ Many thanks for your essay, but I have had time only just to look at it, as I am to my never-ceasing regret a very poor German scholar. I shall be extremely glad to receive a complete copy of yr work on Aldrovanda &c⁸

With sincere thanks & respect | I remain dear Sir yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin