To Asa Gray 30 June [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
June 30
My dear Gray
I have received your two letters2 & have forwarded the enclosure, with the page inserted, to Nature; & I hope the Ed will publish it.3 It was very good of you to send me the Sarracenia;4 I soaked it & then stuffed it with cotton wool, so that I have now an excellent idea of the plant. It is as wonderful a case as any orchid Drosera or Dionæa & I cannot say more in honour of a plant.5 I see that the lid is brightly coloured, no doubt to attract insects.
I read with interest your semi-theological review, & have got the book.6 but I think your review will satisfy me. The more I reflect on the subject, the more perplexed I grow.
I wrote a week since to ask you to observe if possible Pinguicula.7 I forget whether I mentioned that the margins of the leaves have the power of movement when excited by solid objects such as bits of glass or by nutritious fluids, but best of all by the two stimulants combined. I believe the purpose of this movement (but I am not yet sure) is to push flies further on to the leaf, when washed by rain into the narrow channel formed by the naturally involuted edge8
Yours most sincerely | Ch. Darwin
P.S. I do not think that I wrote a bit too strongly about your article on me.—9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Hodge, Charles. 1874. What is Darwinism? London: T. Nelson and Sons.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Thanks for Sarracenia, which is as wonderful as any orchid.
Asks AG to observe Pinguicula.
Has read AG’s semi-theological review [Nation 18 (1874): 348–51] with interest
and has obtained the book [C. Hodge, What is Darwinism? (1874)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9520
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Asa Gray
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (109)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9520,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9520.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22