To Daniel Oliver 31 March [1864]1
Down Bromley. | Kent.
Mar 31
Dear Oliver
I am infinitely obliged for the reference.2 I certainly shd be very glad to hear what the paper is about & I beg you to be brief & not waste your time as I must ultimately read the paper
I am very glad to hear about Modecca, but I had given up the ghost from your former letter.3 Will you thank Hooker for his splendid long letter4 & ask him to read the enclosed from Scott about whom I am very sorry.5 I have just had another long letter from him with some most remarkable observations on the fertility of Orchids with their own & other pollen.6 Incidentally he was led to estimate with care the number of seeds in one capsule of Acropera & the no—amounts 371250 in one capsule—& the plant produces many capsules—7 Is not this stupendous? I heartily wish something cd be done for this man
Dear Oliver | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
‘Climbing plants’: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. [Read 2 February 1865.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 9 (1867): 1–118.
Léon, Isidore. 1858. Recherches nouvelles sur la cause du mouvement spiral des tiges volubiles. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France 5: 351–6, 610–14, 624–9, 679–85.
Summary
Asks DO to give enclosed [letter?] from John Scott to Hooker.
JS’s work on orchid self-sterility; Acropera has 371250 seeds in one capsule.
Wishes something could be done for Scott.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4068
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Daniel Oliver
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 261.10: 44 (EH 88206027)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4068,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4068.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12