To Frederick Smith1 [c. 17 February 1864?]2
1 Large black humble bee 3 Specimens of h. bee with orange abdomen. 4. Specs of greenish golden bee These 8 bees come from Trinidad in W. Indies & were seen fertilizing Catasetum.3
a humble bee seen fertilizing Goodyera repens (a rare orchis in N. of Scotland)4
various bees seen fertilizing orchis morio & ticketed with this name.5
a minute bee in pill box which fertilized a Cypripedium.6
I hope you will excuse me asking this great favour & I wish I cd think that any of the specimens cd be of any use to you—
yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
A Wasp always seen fertilizing Epipactis Latifolia7
P.S. I shd. like much to hear whether the Amoy Bee is the common var.—8
Specimens
Euglossa Latr. 9
1. Euglossa——N. Sp.—
3. Euglossa cajennensis. St. Fargeau
4 Euglossa piliventris. Guér
—Bombus pratorum Linn. seen fertilizing Goodyera repens——10
—Various bees seen fertilizing O. morio Apis mellificæ—
Bombus muscorum11 —
—Andrena parvula Kirby a minute bee in pill box.——12
—Epipactis latifolia, a label with this name attached to Vespa sylvestris.13
—O. morio, attached to Eucera longicornis Lin.
—O. morio also attached to Osmia rufa. Lin.14
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Crüger, Hermann. 1864. A few notes on the fecundation of orchids and their morphology. [Read 3 March 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 127–35.
‘Fertilization of orchids’: Notes on the fertilization of orchids. By Charles Darwin. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [Collected papers 2: 138–56.]
Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.
Summary
Sends, for identification, specimens of bees and wasps which fertilise orchids. [Notes in FS’s hand on the same sheet identify the specimens.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3365
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Frederick Smith
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 70: 162
- Physical description
- LS(A) 2pp inc, FS note 1p † (by CD)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3365,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3365.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12