To Henry Groves 3 April 1882
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
April 3d 1882.—
Dear Sir
I thank you cordially for the beautiful specimens of the Nitella & for your letter of instructions.—1 I have roughly tried the effects of C. of Ammonia on the chlorophyll grains, but I find stooping over the microscope affects my heart. The grains swell & then exhibit the contained particles of starch very clearly, & some of the grains become confluent, occasionally sending out prolongations.2 But my observations are hardly trustworthy. The grains do not seem to be so strongly affected as in some few other cases. The facts which you relate about the distribution of the Nitella are very curious;3 & how little we know about the life of any one plant or animal!
Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
‘Action of carbonate of ammonia on chlorophyll’: The action of carbonate of ammonia on chlorophyll-bodies. By Charles Darwin. [Read 6 March 1882.] Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany) 19: 262–84.
Summary
Thanks HG for specimen of Mitella.
CD has tried effects of carbonate of ammonia on chlorophyll grains, but his observations are hardly trustworthy. He finds stooping over the microscope affects his heart.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13754
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Henry Groves
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Add MS 46917: 66)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13754,” accessed on
