My dear Dyer

It is extraordinarily kind in you & all at Kew to be willing to entrust so precious a plant with us. But I fear to handle it & therefore telegraphed to you too late.—² For tracing exact course which a root follows in moving to light, I do not see how we could possibly manage it, as it seems that the plant w^d. have to be kept hot & damp & near the light to continue healthy. Therefore I will despatch it, without moving it in its case, this day about 2^o, marking it to be forwarded immediately by rail. Once again I thank you most heartily. (We have damped a bundle of moss & fastened within case to keep in dampish.)

The Bignonias also are very valuable & shall hereafter be returned.³ My one plant behaved very badly yesterday, & perhaps I shall prove altogether wrong; but is is a greater advantage to prove oneself wrong even than to find out a new fact. Good Heavens what pit-falls & traps there are in experimental work.—

A few days ago I sh^d have thought the Atriplex a curious little case, but now it may prove invaluable, as Frank is working on relation of stomata to bloom, & it was for this very purpose that we wanted so badly Trifolium resupinatum, the seeds of which I think are now germinating—⁴

Yours gratefully | C. Darwin