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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   25 January [1879]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Jan 25th

My dear Dyer

Your letter, like so many previous ones, is most useful to me. I am perplexed about Ox. tropæoloides, for in structure & movement the cotyledons differ from those of O. corniculata var. atropurpurea, which I have carefully observed.—2 I hope that I may succeed in raising some plants.—

It is a shame that you shd. have had trouble to write about Drosophyllum.3 Thanks for Darlingtonia; I hope it will not be injured by frost, which stops nearly all our experimental work.4

I will bear in mind what you say, about notes on Geograph Distribution; but trying to make out something new is so much more interesting than compiling old notes.5

We much enjoyed your visit here.6 I must to work

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Dyer

Oxalis colorata ) seeds from Kew

— articulata)

are these closely allied to O. rosea? &, are they American species?7

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 27 January 1879.
For Oxalis tropaeoloides and Oxalis corniculata var. atropurpurea, see the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [20 January 1879] and n. 2. The name Oxalis tropaeoloides is also sometimes associated with the horticultural variety Oxalis corniculata var. repens, so CD’s seeds may have been of this variety.
The reference has not been identified; the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [20 January 1879], is incomplete. Drosophyllum is a genus of carnivorous plants containing a single species, D. lusitanicum (Portuguese sundew or dewy pine).
In Movement in plants, p. 450 n., CD commented that although one researcher had found the leaves of Darlingtonia californica (California pitcher-plants) to be strongly apheliotropic, he and Francis Darwin had not found this movement in a plant that they possessed for a short time.
Thiselton-Dyer and his wife, Harriet Anne, visited Down on 18 January 1879 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
This query appears on a separate sheet of paper, along with other queries that CD crossed out, evidently as having been sufficiently dealt with in this letter or the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [20 January 1879]. The other queries are as follows: ‘Ox. tropæoloides, (seeds from Carter) can you tell me anything about affinities & habitat of this species | T or Filocereus Houtletianum leucocephalus,—(from Kew) what must I call this? | Seeds of Drosophyllum | Darlingtonia. specimen’. James Carter & Company were London seed merchants. Pilocereus houlletianum is a synonym of P. arrabidae. CD used the name Pilocereus Houlletii (an unresolved name) in Movement in plants, p. 97. Darlingtonia is the monospecific genus of the California pitcher-plant.

Summary

Movements in Oxalis.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11845
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Turner Thiselton-Dyer
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Darwin: Letters to Thiselton-Dyer, 1873–1881: ff. 153–6)
Physical description
ALS 4pp †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11845,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11845.xml

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