Dear Darwin

I have been driven wild with work & the Address, which I am taking down with me in an inchoate state— We are off tonight, via Stranraer.¹

I have been working steadily at Nepenthes every day & made a good deal out— its apetite for cartilage is simply prodigious— it reduces lumps, as big as your finger nail in 48 hours to lovely jelly & after 10 days there is not the slightest trace of putrification in what of the jelly remains.² Nothing can be more lovely than to draw out the cartilage attached to a thread after immersion it looks like a ball of rock crystal refracting the light most beautifully.

I got little or no action by fluid withdrawn from pitcher & kept in a tube.— nor with plants in a cold room. The digestive fluid is evidently poured into the original liquid only after immersion of meat.— Fibrin as I think I told you goes “like smoke”—but not in a tube.³ I find copious honey-secretion on glands of lid in all species but one, & in this one (the only one of the genus) the lid lies horizontally back!— & it would be prejudicial if it had honey, for it would decoy them away from the pitcher. I have tried seeds but results are not satisfactory— after 3 days immersion both mustard & cress are killed— ditto in distilled water. One days immersion shows no difference— I must try seeds quite differently.⁴

I have made out a good deal of structure in Sarracenia but nothing of action— it is not easy, & secretion is scarce—⁵

As to Cephalotus it is a beast—⁶ it will not kill or eat,—& I am in despair about it— it does not catch insects to any amount & I find no action on glands or cells. The Stomata in the pitcher is an exception to all these pitcher plants—& shows that this cannot depend on the secretion much— it forms very little water indeed. I have made out the secreting glands, seen them secrete acid fluid, but I cant exite them to secrete. Cartilage rots very soon in the pitcher & fibrin remains unchanged

The address is a sort of rambling statement of the history of Dionaea & Sarracenia & Drosera up to your time ending with B. Sanderson.⁷ I shall not touch your ground—but refer to you.—⁸ I then go straight at Sarracenia & Nepenthes & shall just touch on Cephalotus.⁹ & wind up with some generalities on absorption & nutrition by plants in general.

Dyer¹⁰ has helped me enormously—& indeed I could not but for him either have got through the work or done it half as well. He catches over ideas & anticipates one’s wants wonderfully & I really feel that he should share whatever credit the historical parts & general conclusions may get. He has not been able to help me at all in the observations I regret to say, not even to look at the experiments.— he has been so very poorly. He is evidently cut out for a Literate not a working botanist. He does not want the capacity for work but the power;— & his mind all seems on book-work & very much to the Economic aspect of Botany.

We go by Stranraer & I hope to get back by middle of next week. & shall hope for a run to Down soon after. Our little girl¹¹ is out of bed, the case has been a most mild one.

Ever yours affec | Jos D Hooker