D^r. Darwin

There is an article in Bull. Bot. Soc. France VIII. 519 by A. de Lassus on irritability of leaves of Aldrovanda a kinsman of Drosera.²

Thanks for your long letter on Linum &c &c.³ I sent you last Thursday a box with two good species of Impatiens flowers, & can send a third if you care for it. I shall be most curious to know what you make of the Floral whorls & their vasc. bundles⁴

Cassia is another genus that has different anthers in same flower. I have also thought of some Comelyneæ but am not sure.⁵ Oliver⁶ has brought in a Tray of Drosera rotundifolia, but I doubt either of us having time to look at it.

My wife went to Cambridge & enjoyed it— I stayed at home! (& enjoyed it) working away at Welwitschia every day & almost every night—⁷ I entirely agree with you by the way, that after long working at a subject, & after making something out of it, one invariably finds that it all seems dull flat stale and unprofitable—⁸ this feeling however you will observe only comes (most mercifully) after you really have made out something worth knowing— I feel as if every body must know more of Welwitchia than I do, & yet I cannot but believe I have (ill or well) expounded & faithfully recorded a heap of the most curious facts regarding a simple plant that have been brought to light for many years.

The whole thing is however a dry record of singular structures, & sinks down to the level of the dullest descriptive account of dead matter, beside your jolly dancing facts anent orchid life & bee-life. I have looked at an Orchid or two since reading the Orchid book & feel that I never should have made out one of your points, even had I limitless leisure zeal & material— I am a dull dog, a very dull dog.— I may content myself with the per contra reflection that you could not (be dull enough to) write a “Genera plantarum”, which is just about what I am best fitted for.—⁹ I feel I have a call that way, & you the other.

The dismal fact you quote of hybrid transitions between Verb. Thapsus & nigra (or whichever two it was) & its bearing on my practice of lumping species through intermediate specimens, is a very horrible one; & would open my eyes to my own blindness if nothing else could.¹⁰ I have long been prepared for such a case, though I once wrote much against its probability—¹¹ I feel tolerably sure I must have encountered many such, but have not the tact to discern them, when under my nose: & I hence feel as if all my vast experience in the field has been thrown away. Your Orchid book has pretty well convinced me that such cases must be abundant,¹² & they only tend further to disturb our ideas of physiological versus structural species.¹³ Perhaps my intermediates between Habenaria chlorantha & bifolia (of which I retain a lively recollection) were of this hybrid nature.¹⁴ Certain it is that I had only to look for Hybrid orchids at the in Switzerland to find two different sorts. & numerous specimens of one of them.¹⁵

Huxley seems to have made short work of Owen at Cambridge.¹⁶ the latter H. says “trailed his coat”—!¹⁷ Otherwise the meeting seems to me to have been dull enough, but cheery & friendly as far as sociability goes

Ever Yours affec | J D Hooker

I don’t think it can be worth while returning the Melastomas but will enquire.¹⁸