From W. C. Marshall 30 August [1874]1
Derwent Island
Augus 30th.
Dear Mr. Darwin
I have sent off a box with a few pinguicula leaves for you today.2
There are I think 3 seeds on them, one a grass seed, one on a withered leaf wh. will I fear be no use, & another wh. when I packed it had formed a globule of fluid about it. I will endeavour to find some more seeds when the rain stops, if it ever does.
I can not trace the secretion from the insects, all I see is that the leaves frequently collect a sticky fluid in sufficient quantities to flow, & that this generally settles in the curled edge. I dont know how far this is merely the effect of rain.
I will send the porportion of leaves with flies on, when I have been able to count some more, I think decidedly more than half have flies on them.3
I noticed a few plants in Switzerland this summer, but had no lens with me., & I did not notice many flies as a rule; but in one spot I found some plants wh. were covered with flies
believe me | yrs. truly | W. C. Marshall
P.S. I have sent a leaf wh. seems to have eated a fly wh. disagreed with it, there is a hole in the leaf as if burnt & the remains of the fly are seen stretching accross it.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Sends CD a box of Pinguicula leaves.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9612
- From
- William Cecil (Bill) Marshall
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Derwent Island
- Source of text
- DAR 58.1: 125–6
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9612,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9612.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22