Summary

Summary

Has returned letter to Caird and dispatched corrected letter to Hooker [11406] [concerning potato experiments].

Summary

Thanks THF and James Caird for their assistance. Will send back the £100 to Torbitt.

Summary

Has written to Torbitt.

Summary

Received enclosed report from Torbitt on potato experiments.

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Requests that THF forward an enclosure if he thinks it proper. James Torbitt’s blunder in using the pollen of a diseased variety accounts for the bad varieties raised last year.

Summary

Forwards letter from James Caird concerning funds for potato experiments. CD will correct his letter to THF [11389] and then forward it to Hooker for his opinion.

Summary

Doubts Ledum warrants investigation. Glands probably serve only to protect the flowers against crawling insects, which would not cross-fertilise them.

Summary

Rejoices at THF’s consenting to the marriage of his daughter Ida and Horace Darwin, although the match is a poor one for Ida "in a worldly point of view". [See 12253.]

Summary

Forwards newspaper reports by growers of Torbitt’s potatoes. Torbitt is in much distress and CD fears all his work will be thrown away unless he is aided.

Summary

Torbitt too poor to go on with [potato] experiments. If anything is to be done it must be by Government.

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Encloses extract from a letter from Fritz Müller about humming-birds visiting Passiflora, "as a caution about Passiflora in contrast with Tacsonia".

[Signed with CD’s name by Emma Darwin.]

Summary

Encloses seeds from Fritz Müller, of a species of Passiflora, fertilised by a humble-bee.

Summary

Recommends Hermann Müller’s Die Befruchtung der Blumen [1873].

Summary

Suggests a reference to Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1 Dec 1873, p. 497, when THF takes up Coronilla.

Summary

Delighted to hear about Coronilla. Urges publication ["Fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers– Coronilla", Nature 10 (1874): 169–70].

Summary

Describes difficulty of conditions for the experiment with Drosera suggested by THF.

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Thanks THF for information from Colonial Office on population statistics showing the inhabitants of some areas are far from becoming sterile.

Summary

CD is delighted with report from THF about activity of worms in Roman-British ruins at Abinger.

Summary

Thanks THF for the diary of worm activity at Abinger site.