Dear Sir

I am very much obliged to you for your kind response to my request made on behalf of my wife to you through Sir John Lubbock.¹

Your paper on the Dimorphism of Linum² which was one my Wife much wished to get I hope to find among the papers that may be spared by one or other of my Linnæan³ friends.

Her other desiderata thanks to your letter and to the memoirs you have been so kind as to send by the post are now in her hands.⁴

It may perhaps give gratification to you as it adds to my gratitude for your kindness, that my wife is I fear for another year or two doomed to be more or less of an invalid and that the reading of papers and works like your’s and working a little on the subjects they treat of, with the microscope are among her most pleasant and refreshing occupations of hours that otherwise would be weary.⁵

Believe me to be Dear Sir with my best thanks | very faithfully your’s | Nevil Story Maskelyne

Ch: Darwin Esq^r. | &c &c &c