To Mary Somerville 21 January [1869]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Jan 21st.
Dear Madam
I beg leave to thank you very sincerely for your great kindness in sending me a copy of your beautiful work, received yesterday, on Molecular & Microscopic Science, and for the honour you have thus conferred on me.2
I have not yet had time to do more than turn over the pages, & to read the part about Orchids, in which you give an excellent summary of the subject.
With my best thanks & the most sincere respect, | I beg permission to remain | dear Madam, | yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Somerville, Mary. 1869. On molecular and microscopic science. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Summary
Thanks for copy of MS’s book [On molecular and microscopic science, (1869)]. Part on orchids is an excellent summary.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6563
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Mary Fairfax/Mary Greig/Mary Somerville
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Bodleian Libraries, Oxford (Dep. c. 370, folder MSD-1: on loan from Somerville College, Oxford)
- Physical description
- LS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6563,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6563.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17
