From Lawson Tait 21 July [1875]1
7, Great Charles St. | Birmingham.
July 21
My Dear Sir,
I did try the water of unopened pitchers on flies, but they grew fungus immediately; so that the conclusion, though negative, is against the presence of the ferment in quantity enough to prevent growth.2 This it most certainly does prevent when in the pitcher, for I have removed & examined insects in all stages of digestion from pitchers, but have found neither bacteria nor fungus Bacteria flourish, however within the closed leaf of the Dionoea3
This perfectly harmonises with my finding only a trace of the substance separated by my process from fluid taken from unopened pitchers
I shall add this when I see proof.4
One other matter of great interest. Two of my plants which I have been feeding have put out plantlets(?) from the middle of the discs of leaves.
This is parthenogenesis as seen in ferns which are overfed! This is singularly corroborative of my theory of dermoid tumours of the ovary which I brought under your notice5
This is a matter I should like to work up, for though hypo-erchitic efforts (arrest of developement) have been exhaustively discussed, hyper-erchitism (transcendent developement) has been wholly overlooked.6
I send you a slide with one of these leaves Can you give me any hints about it? I beg however that you will not put yourself to inconvenience to do so.
I trouble you with the slide as I am sure it will interest you. May I ask you to return it as it is the best I have. I shall mount another for you if you care to have it
Yours, Lawson Tait
P.S | You will see that one of the leaves of the plantlet has caught a spider.
I also enclose the only specimen of Droserin from Drosera binata which I have
In the watch glass is some Droserin separated yesterday from the active secretions of Nepenthe pitchers.7 Naked eye appearances are almost conclusive that they are the same & their actions are, so far as I can see, identical
If you care to try anything with the contents of the watch glass I shall be glad that you should use it
I should like the little bottle & its contents back.
Yours faithfully | Lawson Tait
Or if you care to do so send the watch glass to Dr. Hooker.8
I have just read proof for the Spectator I hope you will like it.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Insectivorous plants: observations on the digestive fluid of Nepenthes.
Reproduction of plant by "parthenogenesis".
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10086
- From
- Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Birmingham
- Source of text
- DAR 178: 16
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10086,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10086.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23
