To Roland Trimen 27 August [1863]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Aug 27th
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged for your very pleasant letter.2 You have hit upon the right case in Oxalis, & seeds will really be a treasure to me.3 I have posted a paper for you on the dimorphism of Linum which if you will read, you will see why I am anxious for Oxalis4 I have a more curious case unpublished;5 but the whole class of facts strike me as very surprising. You may rely on my statements for they have been verifyed. Linum perenne agrees with your Oxalis.6 I am also very glad indeed to hear about the Peaches,7—the more so as it is an exotic in S. Africa.— I am going in a weeks time to Malvern for a month to try & get a little strength, & when there I will probably draw up a notice for Gardeners’ Chronicle on your peach case.—8
I daily expect proofs of your paper on Disa;9 a rough woodcut is made.— 10 You must not waste time in sending me many specimens of Orchids in spirits, for I declare I do not know whether I shall ever have time to work up mass of new matter already collected on Orchids. It is capital sport to observe & a horrid bore to publish.—
It pleases me to read your admiration on my beloved orchids—11 I quite agree they are intellectual beings! By the bye, I believe I have blundered on Cypripedium:12 Asa Gray suggested that small insects enter by the toe & crawl out by the lateral windows.—13 I put in a small bee & it did so & came out with its back smeared with pollen; I caught him & put him in again, & again he crawled out by the window: I cut open the flower & found the stigma smeared with pollen!—
Read Bates Travels14 they will,, I am sure, interest you.— With respect to Physianthus, I do not know whether fact is known; but I think it would be well worth investigating.15 It is certain that the Asclepiadæ require insect aid for fertilisation. The pollen-masses are wonderfully like those of Orchids. You ought to read R. Browns admirable paper on Asclepias in Transact. Linnean Soc. about 15 or 20 years ago.16 In the Apocyneæ, (which are allied to the Asclepiadæ) there is a genus, which catches Diptera by the hundred; I have a plant but cannot make it flourish, as I have always wished to investigate the case.17 It is said that the Diptera are caught by the wedge-shaped spaces between filaments of anthers. But I suspect that plant somehow profits or requires visits of insects. You ought to try whether Physianthus will seed if insects are excluded by a net.— I have seen Hymenoptera from N. America with numbers of pollen-masses of some Asclepias sticking to their tarsi; & the pollen-masses are thus dragged over the stigmas.— R. Brown’s paper has beautiful illustrations.—
This is a disjointed, dull letter, but I have been working all day with very little strength.—
With every good wish & sincere thanks | Pray believe me | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1863. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
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–.
‘Fertilization of orchids’: Notes on the fertilization of orchids. By Charles Darwin. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [Collected papers 2: 138–56.]
General index to the Journal of the Linnean Society: General index to the first twenty volumes of the Journal (Botany), and the botanical portion of the Proceedings, November 1838 to June 1886, of the Linnean Society. London: Linnean Society of London. 1888.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
‘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.]
Trimen, Roland. 1863. On the fertilization of Disa grandiflora, Linn.... drawn up from notes and drawings sent to C. Darwin, Esq., FLS, &c. [Read 4 June 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): 144–7.
‘Two forms in species of Linum’: On the existence of two forms, and on their reciprocal sexual relation, in several species of the genus Linum. By Charles Darwin. [Read 5 February 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): 69–83. [Collected papers 2: 93–105.]
Summary
Discusses methods of pollination in orchids.
Thinks RT should investigate Physianthus to see if it requires insect aid for fertilisation as the Asclepiadaceae do.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4279
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Roland Trimen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 57)
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4279,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4279.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11