My dear Romanes,

My father is going off tomorrow morning for a rest of a month & asks me to write to you—¹ He thanks you for your letter which has amused him much (as it did me)   he says you should publish it in Nature.² From a letter lately received from Fritz Müller I know there are some stinging plants ⁠⟨⁠(⁠⟩⁠Dalechampia) in Brazil, & from the way in which he spoke of the European stinging nettle I think it doesn't grow there. I sent his letter to nature & it will soon come out.³ He thinks plants protected by stinging hairs from ants, or by milky acrid juice, are specially well fitted for pasture for caterpillars. Try a sloth with stinging nettles. I believe the protecting ants keep the sloths from the Brazilian Cecropia peltata.⁴ My father thinks the guinea pig theory very probable. He has shown (I think in Animals & Plants) that the guinea pig is distinct from the Apereæ of La Plata: the wild parent of guinea pig is unknown⁵   My father will write about crossing if he has anything to say.⁶

I shall be delighted to do anything to help your Kew work. I am going to S’hampton in a few days so I fear I cannot look you up as you kindly suggest, I will some day however.⁷

My father thought there might be something in the ‘veneration’ theory.⁸ The religious or feudal feeling seems to me to give a nervous system to a community; not only by connecting all parts of the society by something that ⁠⟨⁠they⁠⟩⁠ feel to be powerful. But it seems ⁠⟨⁠to⁠⟩⁠ have the explosive or intensify⁠⟨⁠ing⁠⟩⁠ power of nervous tissue. If ⁠⟨⁠one⁠⟩⁠ thinks of Cromwells Ironside⁠⟨⁠s as⁠⟩⁠ an organism & compare them ⁠⟨⁠ ⁠⟩⁠ an organism with a body of ⁠⟨⁠  ⁠⟩⁠ one feels how the theocratic feeling “The Lo⁠⟨⁠rd is⁠⟩⁠ on our side” gives such contr⁠⟨⁠  ⁠⟩⁠ force to the Puritan organism tha⁠⟨⁠t⁠⟩⁠ the Royalist one is smashed.⁹

Yrs sincerely | Francis Darwin