Dear M^r Darwin

I am sorry to hear that oxalis tropæoloides does not agree with O. corniculata var. atropurpurea as there seems no doubt that the names are really synonyms. I can only suppose that Carter has not sent you the seed true to name. Could your gardener grow some and let us see the result¹

I am also ashamed to confess that I can make nothing of Oxalis colorata   The name after a protracted search cannot be found in any book or seed Catalogue. It is reprehensible of our people to send you a “dark” plant like this but it is difficult with much on one’s hands to get people to act always as one would wish them to do in an ideal world. It may be a garden form of O. purpurata which is a Cape species, but this is only a guess.

O. articulata is S. American species

If your gardener could grow O. colorata we might be able to make something of it even in a young state.²

Moseley has been here to day and he assures me that pigeons in Malaya eject seeds in a state fit for germination— He has himself found the seeds so ejected. He believes they do this habitually after over eating³

Believe me | yours sincerely | W. T. Thiselton Dyer