My dear Darwin,

I send you all I can well manage—a mere sketch of what you might expect to find if you think the specimen sufficiently interesting to have it forwarded—²

it is suspended from inside of a bell glass by liquid & cotton wool—I can easily detach it by Alcohol— The edges are somewhat crushed here & there, & altogether it is beyond my opportunities to examine it so thoroughly as to give you any very precise details— I find it came from Cuba not Mexico, as I told you. The material resembles that of the nests of V. vulgaris & V. holsatica—firm fibre—not the herbaceous materials which become so rotten in the nests of V. crabro & V. rufa—& look as if these were composed of rotten wood— Perhaps they may be in part—but certainly not entirely, for I have found the material, when freshly laid on, quite green in some cases—

My Curate is away for a fortnight, & I have my hands full— but I did not like to defer this scanty account any longer— If you prefer propounding Questions, to seeing the specimen I will endeavour to answer them—but not feelin⁠⟨⁠g sure⁠⟩⁠ of what you exactly want I am at a loss—

Ever Y^rs affec, | J S Henslow