To Roland Trimen 13 May 1864
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
May 13 1864
My dear Mr Trimen
I received your letter of Mar 14.1 some time ago & was fearful that the Oxalis would never arrive, but yesterday to my joy they came safe & alive & are now planted. Please give my sincere thanks to Mr Mac Gibbon2 & accept them yourself. The plants will be invaluable. My only fear is that each kind has been propagated by offsets from a single stock & if so they will all belong to the same form.3
I am sorry for my mistake about the Disa. I have sent an erratum to Linn. Journ.4
Thanks for the additional facts about Disa, but I am sure I do not know what I shall ever do with all my wealth of new facts.5
I am slowly recovering from my 10 months illness, but I do not know when I shall regain my old modicum of strength. I was pleased to see a nice little review evidently by Mr Bates on your Cape butterflies in that admirable journal the Nat. Hist. Review.6
By the way do you see the “Reader.” No English newspaper ever before gave half as good resumés of all branches of science: the literature is likewise well treated. I do not know who the Editor is so that my puffing is honest.7
Does Strelitzia reginæ grow in any gardens at the Cape? I strongly suspect it must be fertilized by some honey seeking bird; the structure is very curious & this wd be worth investigating8
with cordial thanks believe me yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. New edition, revised with the assistance of Christine Ellwood. London: Taylor & Francis and the Natural History Museum. Bristol, Pa.: Taylor & Francis.
‘Fertilization of orchids’: Notes on the fertilization of orchids. By Charles Darwin. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [Collected papers 2: 138–56.]
Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.
McCracken, Donal P. 1997. Gardens of empire: botanical institutions of the Victorian British empire. London and Washington: Leicester University Press.
Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.
Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1909. Charles Darwin and the origin of species. Addresses, etc., in America and England in the year of the two anniversaries. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Trimen, Roland. 1862. Papilionidæ, Pieridæ, Danaidæ, Acræidæ, and Nymphalidæ. Pt 1 of Rhopalocera Africæ Australis; a catalogue of South African butterflies: comprising descriptions of all the known species, with notices of their larvæ, pupæ, localities, habits, seasons of appearance, and geographical distribution. Cape Town, South Africa: W. F. Mathew.
Trimen, Roland. 1863. On the fertilization of Disa grandiflora, Linn.... drawn up from notes and drawings sent to C. Darwin, Esq., FLS, &c. [Read 4 June 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): 144–7.
Summary
Oxalis plants have arrived safely [see 4347].
CD regrets his mistake about Disa; will correct it.
Thanks RT for his additional facts about Disa.
Is recovering slowly from ten months’ illness.
Asks whether Strelitzia reginae grows in gardens at the Cape. Suspects it must be fertilised by a bird.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4493
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Roland Trimen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 59)
- Physical description
- LS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4493,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4493.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12