My dear Mr Darwin

If you have not got your Coronilla it is not poor Paynes fault who has been laid up like every one else with influenza, and danger of worse—¹ However I hope he will now soon be about again. The place does not seem itself without him. We leave tomorrow just as the skies are brightening

I am struck this year by the amazing variations of the hardy primulas—of which we have a great number— From polyanthus and cowslip to primrose there is every gradation—² Umbel and no umbel, often on the same plant: large flowers & small ones some: every gradation of colour from deepest browns & reds to palest yellow: sometimes even the dusty auricula tone: calyx changing into corolla: and corolla and calyx changing into leaf— they seem to confound every attempt at definition or description.

I suppose this is the bees work amongst our native primroses & imported polyanthuses— I suppose too this is a disturbance we have effected with our new polyanthuses; and that in course of time all would settle again into the stable equilibrium of natural species.

But it is curious to see what a variable race the primulas are.

Sincerely yours | T H Farrer