To John Lindley 1 November [1861]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Nov. 1st
My dear Lindley
Will you allow me once again to trespass on your kindness? I send in little Box by this post with a flower of a Dendrobium sent me from Kew as D. macrophyllum;2 but it was previously sent me by an orchid grower as D. chrysanthum & is the one I asked you about. Can you tell me which it is?—
Since I wrote I have been working hard in tracing spiral ducts; & I find in all cases that the sides of the Labellum receive all their ducts from the two antero-lateral bundles of the ovarium, which bundles supply the 2 lower sepals & 2 stigmas (the rostellum being supplied from the posterior bundle which supplies the fertile anther & upper sepal)
You & Brown believe the Labellum is compound when it presents ridges &c;3 but Hooker tells me he thinks I am right in inferring from the above facts that the Labellum is always an organ compounded of lower petal & 2 anthers, of outer whorl, with doubtful traces of one anther, of inner whorl.
Now this is a long preface to asking you whether the Orchid (name forgotten) which has Labellum quite similar to the two upper petals be very rare; & if not & you can spare a single dried flower; for I am very curious to try & trace its ducts or spiral vessels. I believe you somewhere speak of Orchid with medial spike or projection on Labellum; this would give me a good chance of tracing the one bundle of ducts which out of the 15 I have failed to discover clearly & trace.—
Forgive me, if you can, for being so troublesome & believe me
Your’s sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lindley, John. 1853. The vegetable kingdom; or, the structure, classification, and uses of plants, illustrated upon the natural system. 3d edition with corrections and additional genera. London: Bradbury & Evans.
Summary
CD is sending an orchid flower; asks JL to identify it.
Also asks if JL can spare a dried flower of another orchid (name forgotten) [which CD describes] so that he can try to trace its ducts or spiral vessels.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3306
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Lindley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Lindley letters, A–K: 195)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3306,” accessed on 6 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3306.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9