To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 19 [May 1878]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
April 19th
My dear Dyer
I am heartily obliged for the plants & seeds which arrived safely & several of them will be of extreme use to me.—2
I hope that you will give from me my thanks to Mr. Lynch.—3
With respect to the tiny plants of Melocactus they are much too old; what I require to see is the plumule or cotyledons (as the case may be) as or before they break through the ground.4 I have therefore been thinking that it wd be the best plan for us to attempt again raising seeds of some Cacteæ, for I forgot that the pots require for my purpose to be daily examined. Will you therefore ask Mr Lynch to let me have any seed or fruit, which he can get of any Cacteæ (avoiding Opuntia nigricans & Rhipsalis cassytha, which so disgracefully failed with us);5 asking him moreover to mark on packet what temperature & kind of soil they ought to be sown in.—
From same cause it wd be better to send me a few seeds of Pachira with instructions about sowing.6 This in the long run wd. give less trouble than raising seedlings for me.—
I was very much interested with your last letter about protoplasm, &c, about which I have sometimes thought though knowing very little.7 As the cell-walls grow I do not see why light, gravity contact &c—shd. not act on them directly, instead of through the protoplasm.— When examining Drosera, I took the impression that the cell-walls were undervalued.8
It is a frightfully difficult subject, & I shall avoid it, keeping to facts as much as possible.—
We are very sorry to hear not a very good account of Mrs. Dyer: some time ago we heard a very prosperous account.—9
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allan, Mea. 1967. The Hookers of Kew, 1785–1911. London: Michael Joseph.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.
Summary
Germination of Cactaceae; CD wants seeds. Site of action of growth-stimuli.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11479
- 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: 116–18)
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11479,” accessed on 6 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11479.xml