My dear Hooker

I am infinitely obliged for all the great trouble which you & M^r Dyer have taken for me.—¹ All the information is most useful & interesting to me.— I have only two remarks to make: the specimen of Marjoram which you took with you was the cultivated & not the wild Marjoram; but if you made out that it was Origanum vulgare, that is enough for me. If I do not hear I will understand that it is O. vulgare.—²

Secondly I am astonished at what you say about Mimosa albida not being sensitive to drops of water.³ Would you try once again, on a warm or hot day, (when plant is sensitive) with a fine syringe as as to imitate a real shower of rain, or put it actually in the rain, if not too cold. If leaflets should shut, does peduncle lower itself?? Or, if this would be less trouble & the plant is small, could you lend it me for a few days, & I would return it.— If sent, address it to Orpington Stⁿ⁴ & send me a card. I am rather sorry to have thrown away so much time over this confounded plant.— By the way I well remember in Brazil walking through a great bed of Mimosa sensitiva, & leaving a track as if an elephant had passed that way. The plant has interested me ever since.—

After you were here, I was very bad, with much loss of memory & severe shocks continually passing through my brain: D^r Andrew Clarke came to see me & is convinced that the brain was affected only secondarily, for which thank God, as I could far sooner die than lose my mind. Clarke is doing me good by an abominable diet.⁵

Farewell my dear old friend. Again & again I thank you for all the great trouble which you have taken.

Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin

My digestion experiments with Drosera have been going on splendidly; I can accelerate or retard the external digestive process with certainty⁶

Farewell | C. D

Thank M^rs Hooker for Charlie’s note: he looks at madmen with quite a gusto.—⁷