Dear Sir.

I thank you sincerely for the proof of your regard which you have offered in sending me a copy of your interesting work on the Movements of Plants, which I received with great pleasure.¹ I have not had time to do more than glance at it, but have seen enough to assure me that it affords the same evidence of your remarkable patience & fidelity in watching the phenomena of nature as well as in interpreting them, which all your works exhibit. I shall certainly make a point of reading the greater part of it for my own gratification & instruction.

I have so many plants of a miscellaneous kind that I almost fancy if I had time to spare I could send you a few observations on the movements of foliage & floral organs of some among them, but alas, I have not your patience & powers of concentration, nor the energy to carry out half my own plans.

I wish I had known you wanted seeds of Megarrhiza, as I daresay that I was the first to grow this, & ripen seeds. I noticed the peculiar mode of growth to which you refer.² I am afraid that the last winter destroyed my plants as they have not appeared.

I sent you last night a tin of grafting wax (I presume that any good kind will serve your purpose & I now send the vegetable seeds, which I detained that I might try for the Garlic seeds.³ It seems that these are not easy to procure, the plant being mostly, if not always, propagated by parting the roots, cloves they are called, or from the bulbils produced on the stem. If seeds can be procured on the Continent I will send some, as soon as they come to hand.

I hope the seeds now sent will serve your purpose. I have stupidly overlooked the Clover,⁴ which shall follow tomorrow; but I am anxious not to delay longer the sending of those I have, for which I fear you have been waiting

With renewed thanks | I am Dear Sir | Yours very obliged | W. Thompson

C. Darwin Esqr:

Would seeds of any other species of Allium be of service, I have A. descendens, neapolitanum, acuminatum, cæruleum⁵