Sir,

I hope you will excuse my troubling you, if there should be no novelty in the subject of my letter. I thought of communicating with you through M^r. Litchfield,¹ with whom I have a friendship of old standing; but the enclosure would not be the better for any delay. It consists of a few cherry blossoms sent me last night by a lady whose attention I had called to your letter in Nature about primroses.² She had observed the ground under a particular tree to be much strewn with them for some years past, and it now appeared that the calyx-tubes were cut some way round as you will see by the specimens. I have been to the place to-day; but yesterday’s cases are more marked, in spite of withering. I observed however that there were a good many blossoms thus attacked on the tree, but I think with these differences:

1. on the tree the aperture was less in the nature of a clean cut, and more like a hole nibbled:

2. it was the exception on the tree when the little cherry inside was attacked, whereas on the ground this seems to be the rule:

3. on the tree I should say a large minority of blossoms were attacked; on the ground I believe the large majority are visibly so.

With respect to primroses it may be worth while to mention that in the only place I know hereabouts in which they are abundant, I could not see any instance of what you describe. But I could only observe them across a hedge.

I am Sir | Your obedient servant | C. J. Monro.