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Darwin Correspondence Project

To George Dickie   [5 July 1861]1

2. Hesketh Crescent | Torquay

Saturday

Dear Sir

I thank you most sincerely for the Listera, which I have been very glad to examine.2 But most unfortunately from being packed in wood Box, instead of tin, the moss was almost dry, & even the buds partly withered, so that the rostellum would not show any signs of the curious vital action peculiar to this genus.— This is the more unfortunate

Footnotes

1
The dating is based upon the reference in the letter to George Gordon, 6 July [1861] to CD’s having received Dickie’s Listera specimens ‘yesterday’. Although 6 July 1861 was a Saturday, CD clearly states in the letter to George Gordon, 6 July [1861] that he also wrote to Dickie ‘yesterday’.
2
Dickie, professor of botany at Aberdeen University, sent CD specimens of Listera cordata (a synonym of Neottia cordata, heartleaf twayblade; see Orchids, p. 152). He had previously supplied CD with information about another plant that grew near Aberdeen (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from George Dickie, 1 December 1856).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

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.

Summary

Thanks for Listera specimen, which arrived withered from being sent in a wooden box.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-3198
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
George Dickie
Sent from
Torquay
Source of text
Liverpool Central Library
Physical description
AL inc †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3198,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3198.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9

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