To A. G. More 17 [July 1861]1
2. Hesketh Crescent | Torquay
17th.
My dear Sir
If you are quite well & take walks, & if you are not utterly sick & weary of me & my requests, I shd. be very glad of 3 or 4 spikes of O. latifolia and O. maculata, with a few of the lower flowers withered. The point is this, that I find in the Kentish specimens that the O. latifolia is far less visited by insects than O. maculata; & as some Botanists doubt whether they are distinct species, it would be rather curious to show them insects distinguish them.—2 The specimens might be sent in brown paper, without trouble of Box, by putting them in water I could easily count the flowers with pollen-masses in & out.— You will see that it is not worth much trouble.
I am now writing my paper, & I fancy that the points are sufficiently curious to make you not regret having with so much patience & kindness helped me.—
I found the other day a lot of Bee Ophrys, with flowers nearly all withered & with the glands of the pollinia all in their pouches. All facts point clearly to eternal self-fertilisation in this species; yet I cannot swallow the bitter pill.3 Have you looked at any this year?—
Yours very sincerely | C Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Summary
Asks for specimen of Orchis latifolia and O. maculata. " … as some Botanists doubt whether they are distinct species it would be rather curious to show them insects distinguish them".
Found a lot of bee orchids. "All facts point clearly to self-fertilisation in this species; yet I cannot swallow the bitter pill."
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3211
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alexander Goodman More
- Sent from
- Torquay
- Source of text
- Royal Irish Academy (A. G. More papers RIA MS 4 B 46)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3211,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3211.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9