To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 16 October [1875]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Oct 16th
My dear Dyer
I write to thank you for all your varied information. I am particularly glad to hear about the Imatophyllum, for if I can get the plants to flower I am particularly curious to know whether Beatons story of the direct action of the pollen is true.2
The arms of the anemone do rotate splendidly, but Frank has made only one trial as yet about their power of burying themselves.3 These seeds were some which one of my sons gathered in Switzerland, & Hooker told us nothing of your being sent any, which we shd be glad of4 I have no doubt Dr. Heckel is right, for I have shown that certain (though not all) glandular hairs especially of Saxifrages do absorb weak carbonate of Ammonia, & I have attempted to show how this gave rise to power of digestion.—5
With many thanks for all your kindness | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Beaton, Donald. 1860. Crossing flowers. Cottage Gardener 24: 253–5.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Heckel, Edouard Marie. 1876. On the floral glands of Parnassia palustris; new physiological functions. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 17: 335–6.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Thanks for information. Absorption of ammonium carbonate by glandular hairs.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10202
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Turner Thiselton-Dyer
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Thiselton-Dyer, W.T., Letters from Charles Darwin 1873–81: 33–4)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10202,” accessed on 27 March 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10202.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23