To John Lindley 15 December [1861]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Dec 15
My dear Lindley
Very many thanks for the Bolbophyllum & I was glad to see the curious little flower. This genus rather puzzles me.—2
With many thanks | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
P.S. | I am so nearly ready for press, that I will not ask for anything more; unless indeed you stumbled on Mormodes in flower.—
As I am writing I will just mention that I am convinced from rudimentary state of ovules, & from state of stigma, that whole plant of Acropera luteola (& I believe A. Loddigesii) is Male.3 Have you ever seen any form from same countries which could be females? Of course no answer expected unless you have ever observed anything to bear on this— I may add from state of ovules & of pollen, Catasetum tridentatum is Male (& never seeds according Schomburgk whom you have accidentally misquoted in Veg. K.)4 Monacanthus viridis is female, Myanthus barbatus is the Hermaphrodite form of same species.—5
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lindley, John. 1853. The vegetable kingdom; or, the structure, classification, and uses of plants, illustrated upon the natural system. 3d edition with corrections and additional genera. London: Bradbury & Evans.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Schomburgk, Robert Hermann. 1837. On the identity of three supposed genera of orchideous epiphytes. [Read 15 November 1836.] Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 17 (1837): 551–2. [Vols. 9,10]
Summary
Thanks JL for a flower of Bolbophyllum, a genus that puzzles him.
Recent work has convinced him a number of orchids are male. Points out that JL [in The vegetable kingdom (1846), pp. 177–8] "accidentally misquoted" R. H. Schomburgk on this point.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3344
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Lindley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Lindley letters, A–K: 198)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3344,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3344.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9