Dear and honoured Sir

you must excuse me not having thanked you before for sending me the copies of my notice on Corydalis,¹ but I was waiting for a little treatise of mine to be finished to send you a copy of it. I have ventured to show how right you are when you say that nature abhors perpetual self-fertilisation.² I heard that there has appeared a new edition of your “Origin of Species”,³ perhaps you have said in it more about selffertilisation and intercrossing than in the first, but I suppose that you did not enter in details and I hope that my little book will not appear quite useless for the public, though I do not believe that you will find much in it that you have not known before. I cannot send you as yet the paper on Aristolochia, it is very annoying that Pringsheim goes on so slowly with his Jahrbücher.⁴

As there is a want of a good German journal with critics of botanical litterature we are going to fill up this want and I have promised to look out for all that belongs to the flowers of plants, therefore you would oblige me very much if you would let me know occasionaly of any paper that is published in England about this matter or tell the authors to send me a copy that I shall most gladly return with those that are wanted of my papers.⁵ I send you two copies of my little work, perhaps you will be so kind to give one of them to somebody, who takes an interest in the matter.⁶

I hope that you are in good health and remain dear Sir | yours | respectfully | Hildebrand