My dear Dyer

Many thanks about Cinerarea: I had no idea it was a Senecio: whenever you see M^r Moore pray thank him for me.¹

I will return the Pleroma in a few days by rail, and let you know by $\frac{1}{2}$^d card when it is dispatched.² We have cut off the branches which straggled up to the roof, leaving some of the lower ones. By the way I have made out that pollen from the shorter stamens fertilises much fewer seeds than that from the longer stamens. Cecropia & the Acacia have arrived in good state but I am frightened at having the unique specimen of the latter.³ They are both in fine condition for Frank to investigate; and Cecropia abounds with the little eggs or pats of butter whichever they may be called.⁴

With respect to the glands on the leaves of the common laurel, the stipules of Vicia, the phyllodium of some acacias &c I believe they are simple excretory organs; and this seems to me probable considering that some leaves under certain climatic influences secrete a sweet juice without possessing any glands.⁵ Delpino argues that the glands serve in every case to attract ants as a protection; but I do not believe this & with our common laurel hive bees suck the secretion much oftener than ants.⁶ A German whose name I can’t recollect (Reinke) maintains that the points of all crenated leaves are furnished in the very early bud condition with glands which excrete.⁷

With very many thanks for all your kind assistance | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

PS I | I understood from Murie that he had nothing to do with the Edinburgh Courant, but he hinted about some botanist who thought himself very unfairly treated by not going on the Arctic expedⁿ.⁸ | CD

PS II | Many thanks for the beautifully clear labels, & for the Stipa information⁹ | FD