My Dear Darwin

Thanks for yours of Aug. 9.¹ Lythrum Hyssopifolia is not in my reach.² Get it from France, where it is common. I may, perhaps, get you L. lineare & alatum thro. correspondents. Nesæa verticillata I will send you seeds of. Probably a very hopeful plant for your purpose³

Mitchella—you will hardly be able to raise from seed.⁴ But I mean to send you this autumn patches of it—hoping to get better sorts,—and live roots of Cypripedium.⁵ Let them rest in the cold till Xmas, & then they will flower in your room very well.

So you have paid for the Orchid-Books sent by Trübner!⁶ Well, I had given away a part, and shall so arrange for the rest. I hope to get observations & fresh orchids in return.

Rothrock suddenly enlisted from Pennsylvania, & is before the enemy!⁷

I am so glad to hear of your boy’s recovery.⁸

Of observations, I have little to say this time. Impatiens sends off pollen tubes out of the anthers of the precociously fertilized blossoms. I could not get specularia. But Torrey says he could not find the pollen-tubes coming out.⁹

No Lythrum within my reach here.

In Ammannia, I have distinguished 2 species by length of style, dimorphic—no doubt, though the 2 species are good.

Goodyera repens & I believe pubescens also. The column of the flower turns back a little & exposes the stigma in the older flowers.— not the labellum drum. ¹⁰

Spiranthes cernua. The difference between the older flowers & those first opened is striking. The latter presents the disc—the former the stigma. But here too, I am very confident the change not in the position of the labellum—but in that of the column!¹¹

You have opened a rich mine indeed among dimorphic & trimorphic? flowers.

Ever— in haste— Yours | most cordially | A. Gray