To Lydia Ernestine Becker [26 or 27 May 1863]1
The dark purple anthers are a mass of some Cryptogamic plant, allied, I suppose, to the smut of Wheat. In the bud the pollen grains can be distinguished, afterwards they are wholly corrupted.2 There remains a pretty case of a reversion from a diœcious to a hermaphrodite condition.3
Footnotes
Summary
Thinks the dark purple anthers are a mass of a Cryptogamic plant, allied to the smut of Wheat. There remains a case of a reversion from a diœcious to a hermaphrodite condition.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4185G
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Lydia Ernestine Becker
- Source of text
- Journal of Botany 7: 291–2
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4185G,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4185G.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18 (Supplement)