From W. E. Darwin 21 October [1862]1
Bank.
Oct 21.
My Dear Father,
I send off by the early post today, some pods of the L. styled Lythrum, from a plant growing in a clump as I put on the envelope.2
The Long styled that I first sent you (wrongly named short-styled) was growing quite by itself some yards from any other plant, and a hundred to two hundred from any clump. The plant itself as far as I can remember—was not an unhealthy plant, but the difference in size and number of pods is very marked. So that comparing a branch of each they look almost like different species, one is so fat and tightly packed in its pods compared to the other; the situations did not differ much, one along side a stream, the other along an all-the-year-round wet ditch.3
I will count the seeds soon. 6 of each as you say—4 Maud Atherley seems much the same, all Mr Atherley can say is that if anything his hopes are rather more than his fears.5 it seems an attack on the brain, all Sunday and Sunday Night, she was screaming most terribly, taking brandy every two hours which she has to do still.
I expect I have seen the last of the exhibition, as I shall not be able to get away this Saturday Certainly, or next most probably.6
Mama was wonderful in London—7 | your affect son | W E Darwin
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
Summary
Effect on seed production of differences in distance between Lythrum plants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3777
- From
- William Erasmus Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Southampton
- Source of text
- DAR 162.1: 93
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3777,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3777.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10