To W. E. Darwin 9 July [1862]1
Down
July 9th.
My dear William
Lenny is very ill, but Mr Engleheart does not think there is danger:2 his kidneys hardly act & his urine is tinged with blood— His liver is much disordered & he vomits. Poor dear little man, he is so patient.—
I have not much heart for Botany. I forget whether I said that pollen-tubes of wheat are same diameter as the cells of stigma—3 it is very improbable that they run down it, but if they do, they could be distinguished, I think, from the cells of stigma by not having transverse septa— It is much the most probable that they penetrate to hairs near where they adhere.— But it is very odd that tubes shd. come out on opposite side to point of adhesion— A rather oldish flower of wheat with anthers gone would be best; put in water & under thin glass.—
The Valerian (what species?) does seem case for me; it is, as in Primula, that some plants should have, all flowers with longer pistil than others.4 In Primula there is no gradation. Are stamens shorter in those flowers with long pistils? It would, I think, be better to look at a good many flowers on same two plants, if all on one have long pistil & all on other short pistil, I shd. very much like to see specimens. This would perhaps be better than marking plant & comparing at different ages—certainly in several plants pistil does elongate with age.—
Vaucher asserts that in all parts of Europe, plants of Lythrum salicaria occur of 3 forms;5 some with long, some with mid- & some with short pistil, & that all flowers on same plant are alike.— I have so many young plants growing up, that I hope I shall get all 3 forms next year.—6
Mamma, thank God, keeps pretty well with all our anxiety. All the rest are pretty well
Good Bye | My dear old fellow | 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–.
Lecoq, Henri. 1854–8. Études sur la géographie botanique de l’Europe et en particulier sur la végétation du plateau central de la France. 9 vols. Paris: J. B. Baillière.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Post Office directory of the six home counties: Post Office directory of the six home counties, viz., Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78.
Vaucher, Jean Pierre Etienne. 1841. Histoire physiologique des plantes d’Europe ou exposition des phénomènes qu’elles présentent dans les diverses périodes de leur développement. 4 vols. Paris: Marc Aurel Frères.
Summary
Lenny [Leonard Darwin]’s illness.
Polymorphism in valerian and Lythrum salicaria.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3649
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Erasmus Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 185: 11
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3649,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3649.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10