My dear Farrer

We are staying here till Monday, so that the Ledum (a plant which I never before saw) arrived quite dried up; but by soaking it, I saw the astonishing number of captured flies.— The case ought to be investigated & if I could find time (which alas prevents many things being done) I would do so.— Could M^r Payne raise me a plant in a pot?² By the way I know nothing about Stipa, & hope a plant has not reached Down during our absence.³

Double flowers are perplexing things, but a theory which I give in my Var: under Dom: seems to explain most cases,—bearing in mind what slight changes of conditions induce sterility.⁴

At present I care for nothing in this wide world except the biology of seedling plants,—the infamous threatening of war being of course a trifle compared with my beloved seedlings.⁵

How charming Abinger must have been looking.—⁶

Yours ever very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

M^r Torbitt wrote to me a little time ago that he had determined to raise 15,000, instead of 5,000 seedling Potatoes.⁷

With respect to crossed Primroses, I have known wild hybrid oxlips, crossed naturally by primrose, & the grandchildren were primroses borne on a very short common peduncle.—⁸