My dear Hooker

One line to say that the magnificent Book arrived quite safe.¹ I fear it will take me some little time to go through it.— Many thanks for names of Orchids. I am heartily glad to hear that M^rs Hooker is better & that you will sometime come to Down.—

If Oliver is at Kew remember me very kindly to him. Tell him I have got the Dionæas through his suggestion from Chichester & shall begin to observe tomorrow.² By the way if Oliver is at Kew, will you ask him to be so kind as to tell me anything he can about origin or habitat of Primula ciliata & P. ciliata var. purpurata   Is it a wild var? They differ oddly in one important respect & I am very curious to know what this var. is.³

I think that you will think that I have made out the meaning of Dimorphism in Primula, satisfactorily & a very odd case it is & has caused me much labour in artificial crossing.⁴

Ever yours | my dear Hooker | C. Darwin

Orchids are inexhaustible in contrivances: Dendrobium chrysanthemum was given me yesterday & it has such a splendid contrivance, so that if an insect fail in removing the pollinia by the sticky matter, the pollinia are pitched right over the rostellum & always alight on the stigma, so nicely adapted is the force of the spring.⁵