To T. H. Farrer 10 August [1873]1
Bassett | Southampton
Aug 10th
My dear Farrer
If you have an idle hour do look at 2 or 3 old flowers of Coronilla, especially any which you could see that Bees have visited. Look with rather high power & very good light at base of vexillum beneath the single stamen, & see if any trace of ruptured or bored cell. It seems possible (& the stage of probabilities is long passed) that bees may then bore a minute hole & visit very quickly the same orifice again & again.2
I am now become mad about drops of water injuring leaves. Please ask Mr Paine3 whether he believes from his own experience that drops of water injure leaves or fruit in his conservatories. It is said that the drops act as burning glasses; if this is true they wd. not be at all injurious on cloudy day. As he is so acute a man I shd. very much like to hear his opinion— I remember when I grew hot-house orchids I was cautioned not to wet their leaves; but I never then thought on subject.
I enjoyed my visit greatly with you, & I am very sure that all England could not afford a kinder & pleasanter host & hostess than you two were to us4
Yours most truly | Ch. Darwin
Here is a maxim for you “It is disgraceful to be beaten by a Coronilla.”
Footnotes
Summary
Asks THF to examine old flowers of Coronilla for holes bored by bees.
Is investigating whether drops of water injure leaves.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9003
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer
- Sent from
- Bassett
- Source of text
- Linnean Society of London (LS Ms 299/20)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9003,” accessed on 3 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9003.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21