Dear Sir,

Nine days ago a friend sent me for experiment a few plants of the Drosera rotund.¹ The specimens were freshly gathered and were placed in a match box from which the matches had been emptied recently. I received them by post some fifteen or sixteen hours after they had been gathered and at once placed them in moist sand. The leaves looked healthy but were evidently not secreting and when small particles of lean beef were placed on them there was no inflection   In spite of being kept moist the leaves have gradually withered and seem now quite dead; some of the glands however have retained their color. The leaves that were inflected when I got the plants have not any of them opened again   Has the small quantity of phosphorous acid with which the box may have become impregnated killed the plants?²

I do not know whether you will care to be troubled with this small fragment of an experiment but as I do not see, in your “Insectiv. Plants” any experiments with Phosphorus or its acids it might, I thought, not be amiss to drop you a line.

I Remain Dear Sir | Yours Very Sincerely | Cha^s H Blackley

Cha^s Darwin Esq M.A F.R.S.