Dear Sir

I will send early Lizard Blooms any day you will write & appoint—² —for instance, on Monday next, to a certainty—but I forewarn you that these early flowers will not be so handsome or so vivid as the later Lizards, from the double effects of the last severe frost, and from the destruction of the lower leaves by Snails— —However, I will with pleasure send you some July Blooms also, which are finer—

—Unless you send other & better instructions by return, I purpose placing the blooms in clean damp Moss, & then in a small deal Box—

(By Kentish Lines of Rail, all goods suffer injury which are not “Merrimacs” or “Monitors”—)³

“Malaxis paludosa”

—I am pretty sure there is a coloured plate of this Bog-Orchis in “Sowerby”—⁴

—I have not got him—& he is now out of Print— Doubtless you know many Persons who possess this Work— If so, please send me the Volume which contains “Malaxis”

—I merely want to know him by sight, and also to know the Month in which he is in flower, and I am almost sure to come upon him—

—My present impression is that he is low in Stature (like Ophrys Monophrys) & the Flower of the same tint, namely a Yellowish Green—

You talk of thousands of “Arachnites” being seen in a good year—⁵

I know only 4 spots in Kent where it is found— —And in the three out of the four—he is only found sparsely—

With best regards | G. Chichester Oxenden

C. Darwin Esq—