From J. D. Hooker 17 April 1875
Royal Gardens Kew
April 17/75
Dear Darwin
I write to say that Griffith has figured glands just like those of Sarracenia within the pitchers of Dischidia, which further contain water & are always full of black ants, many of which are found drowned in the pitchers— see Wallich Plant. As. Rar. v. 2 t. 142.1
From notes in the Herbarium I find that different species of Black ant inhabit different species of Dischidia.
We have one species at Kew. that I found in Bengal, but I am not sure that it ever bears pitchers.
I am treating it here in a way that will cause their development if they should be so disposed. The said pitchers occupy only certain branches of the plants— I shall get the other kind from Malacca.2
Our Marcgraavia I have got to assume the leaves that preceede flowering, so I shall hope to get it to flower, but these gigantic climbers are very awkward to manage.3
I am off on Tuesday mg.4
Ever yr affec | J D Hooker
Footnotes
Bibliography
Climbing plants: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Griffith, William. 1846. On the structure of the ascidia and stomata of Dischidia rafflesiana Wall. [Read 20 January 1846.] Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 20 (1846–7): 387–90.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1872–97. The flora of British India. Assisted by various botanists. 7 vols. London: L. Reeve & Co.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Wallich, Nathaniel. 1830–2. Plantæ Asiaticæ rariores; or, descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants. 3 vols. London, Paris, and Strasbourg: Treuttel and Würtz.
Summary
On pitchers of Dischidia and insects found in them.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9936
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 104: 26–8
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9936,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9936.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23