To J. S. Henslow 16 June [1856]1
Down Bromley Kent
June 16th
My dear Henslow
You may remember sending me seed of “Myosotis repens or cæspitosa, Stowmarket”.2 The next time you go that way, would you be so kind as to gather me a tuft in flower & send it in letter that I may see what the aboriginal is like.— I send one of my cultivated specs., (1st generation) that you may see it, not that I suppose it is anyways remarkable.—
Secondly, can you give me the address of shop in London, where, years ago, I got on your recommendation nice square strong paste-board Boxes, about 15 inches square: I cannot myself remember in the least where it was.—
Thirdly, when will you publish some little Book to show how to teach Botany on Nat. System to children:3 How I wish you would: my children are always asking me, & I have no idea how to begin. If you can’t or won’t publish, pray tell me what Book I had better get: Lindley’s School Bot. is out of Print,4 which Hooker recommended to me;—not that, I suppose, that would have done to teach children by.— Forgive my 3 questions, & answer them when at leisure, or rather when least busy.
My dear Henslow | Your’s most truly | C. Darwin
Your Lychnis-plants are flourishing & I am dosing them & others, with Guano water, salt-petre & common salt, & intend thus to make the most wonderful transformations,—that is, if the plants have any gratitude, for they evidently much like the doctoring.—5
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Lindley, John. 1854. School botany, and vegetable physiology; or, the rudiments of botanical science. A new edition. London.
Russell-Gebbett, Jean. 1977. Henslow of Hitcham: botanist, educationalist and clergyman. Lavenham, Suffolk: Terence Dalton.
Summary
Sends a cultivated specimen of Myosotis (first generation) grown from seed sent by JSH. Asks for a tuft of flower.
Hopes JSH will publish a book on teaching botany, because he has no idea how to begin with his children.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1903
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Stevens Henslow
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 93: A110–11
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1903,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1903.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6