Summary

Requests DO apply carbonate of ammonia to sensitive hair of Dionaea and measure reaction time. Wants to compare Drosera and Dionaea.

Summary

Working on monstrous Primula. Is ovule anatropous as Asa Gray says, or amphitropous? Does he know natural path of pollen tubes in Primula. Can the tube enter the ovule by the chalaza?

Summary

Wants to amend request [see 2946] if DO wants to try carbonate of ammonia experiment. Put third drop on midrib of leaf [of Dionaea] or inside upper side.

Sorry DO already has Origin. Would he like Journal of Travels [Journal of researches]?

Summary

DO’s observations on polymorphism in Primula and Campanula. CD recognises three classes of dimorphism, as in Primula, Thymus, and Campanula and violets.

DO’s Campanula paper and Royal Institution lecture [Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 431–3].

CD’s interest in Fumariaceae from A. Gray’s comments on "selfing".

Bees bite holes in flowers when same species grows in high density.

Organisation of CD’s notes.

Summary

Thanks for mentioning J. G. Kurr on nectaries [Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Nektarien in den Blumen (1833)]. Requests observations on flowers with curved pistils. Finds they curve toward nectary, thus lying in path of insect.

Summary

Struck with corresponding positions of tendrils and flower-stalks in Passiflora. Sends [W. E. Darwin’s] dissection drawings of earliest stages. Infers that tendril is a modified flower peduncle.

Requests DO look at mode of climbing in Tecoma.

Summary

Returns insectivorous plants to Kew, with questions about their range. Most species seem to have remarkably confined ranges.

Asks for a Bengal Aldrovanda leaf so that he can see whether it differs from the German species.

Roridula interested him extremely.

Summary

Thanks for information on Tecoma.

Cannot believe DO’s statement about Catasetum; is sure C. tridentatum sets seeds in its native country.

CD erred on Acropera, but how is it naturally fertilised?

Summary

Sends address.

Summary

Has been copying out references from Natural History Review [possibly D. Oliver, "The structure of the stem in dicotyledons; being references to the literature of the subject", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 298–329].

Suggests DO study high incidence of separate sexes in freshwater plants.

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.

Summary

Has examined nearly all British orchids.

Hooker’s error on Listera.

Change in colour and consistency of Drosera hair glands after leaf inflection. Analogous structures in Dionaea. Requests Oliver confirm these observations on live plants, of which he has none.

In a muddle over the effects of salts on insectivorous plants.

Summary

If CD understood Nepenthes, he would understand every class of climbers.

Summary

Thanks for information on Primula ovules. From what DO says the pollen-tubes ought to find their way to the micropyle.

Summary

Describes floral anatomy of a Catasetum sent by DO.

Has gone on from orchids to studying insect agency in Pelargonium.

His doubts on the worth of publishing Orchids.

Summary

Delighted to try experiments on Drosera spathulata.

Summary

Thanks him for specimens.

Summary

Thanks for correcting Fritz Miller’s paper on climbing plants. CD will send it to Linnean Society.

Summary

Is it now thought that the spongioles of rootlets secrete carbonic acid which acts on bones and rocks?

Summary

Thanks for information and extracts.

M. A. Curtis, quoted in ["Dionaea"] Penny encyclopedia [(1837) 8: 508], gives the only full account of Dionaea.

Concurs in DO’s explanation of Dionaea footstalk cells, which CD took for stomata.

Is using carbonate of ammonia as a substitute for flies and colour change in glands as index of action on Drosera. Suspects other nitrogenous compounds do not act till decomposed into carbonate of ammonia. Beginning to write Drosera paper. Action of nitrogenous compounds.