My dear Farrer

If you have an idle $\frac{1}{2}$ 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 M^r 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 w^d. not be at all injurious on cloudy day. As he is so acute a man I sh^d. 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.”