From L. C. Wedgwood [22 September 1866]1
Leith Hill Place, | Dorking.
Saturday
Dear Uncle Charles
This is what the Bot. Mag. says about Erica Massoni: “—the branches are long and upright, covered closely with numerous hoary leaves, nearly cylindrical. Most of these terminate in large umbels of flowers, which continue a long while in bloom and are so extremely viscous, that scarsely a winged insect can settle on them and escape with its life; the formidable wasp sometimes becomes its victim as we had once an opportunity of seeing.”2
From the plate there seem to be longish hairs about the calyx but he says nothing about them.3
CD annotations
Footnotes
Summary
Quotes Botanical Magazine on Erica massoni. Its branches terminate in large umbels of flowers that are extremely viscous and entrap insects.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9200
- From
- Lucy Caroline Wedgwood/Lucy Caroline Harrison
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Leith Hill Place
- Source of text
- DAR 58.1: 134
- Physical description
- inc †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9200,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9200.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)