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Darwin Correspondence Project

From William Robinson   19 November 1864

Roy. Bot. Gardens | Regents Park

Novem 19th. 64

C. Darwin Esq

Sir.

The climbing plant you noticed here1 during my absence & wished to learn the name of, is I believe a species of Paullinia a probably P. barbarense or curassavica 2

We had it from the West Indies.

I am Sir | Yours very respectfully | Wm. Robinson

Footnotes

CD had visited the Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s Park, in August, while staying with his sister-in-law, Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood, in London (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [23 August 1864], and ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 12, Appendix II)). Robinson was foreman of the herbaceous department at the Society (Gardeners’ Chronicle 3d ser. 97 (1935): 323).
Index Kewensis gives the species names as Paullinia barbadensis and P. curassavica (a synonym of P. pinnata, barbasco). CD did not give the species names in ‘Climbing plants’, but noted on page 89 that he had seen, but was unable carefully to observe, Paullinia, a tendril-bearer of the family Sapindaceae.

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.

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

Index Kewensis: Index Kewensis: plantarum phanerogamarum, nomina et synonyma omnium generum et specierum … nomine recepto auctore patria unicuique plantae subjectis. 4 vols., and 20 supplements. Compiled by Benjamin Daydon Jackson, et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1893–1996.

Summary

Identifies a climbing plant that CD saw at the Society’s gardens.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-4675
From
William Robinson
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Royal Botanic Society
Source of text
DAR 157.2: 114
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4675,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4675.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12

letter