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From William Allport Leighton   [before 21 June 1863]1

[Enclosure]2

Days ago I was at Lee’s3 with our fellow Lambert,4 &, as many species of Verbascum unknown to me were in blossom, I tried in all of them the phænomenon of their [irritability], with the greatest success in all of them. I remember having spoken to you about it; & as probably the English Verbasca are now in flower about Norwich I will be very glad if you observe it minutely. Strike with a stick & with some force, the stem of the plant under the branches 2 or 3 times & wait patiently for some minutes; you will see the limbus of the corolla move towards the centre, & afterwards the basis of the tubus slowly detach itself from the receptacle & fall—& immedly. the calyx close itself with impatience & embrace the seeds & that will happen to all the open flowers one after another.5 In Portugal6 I had observed it in the Verbascum Thapsi—sinuatum— Blattaria—now at Lee’s in many others & I wish I cod. observe all its species & the Celsiæ:— I know nothing analogous in other plants   Next year this will be followed up, & made a Memoir for our Society.7

Abbé Correa to Sir JES. in lit July 4. 1795   see Life of Sir JES. 2.2108

CD annotations

End of letter: ‘Life of Sir J. E. Smith.’ ink

Footnotes

1
The date is established by the reference to CD’s experimental notes on Verbascum lychnitis (see n. 5, below).
2
The letter with which this enclosure was sent has not been found. The enclosure is a copy of part of a letter from Abade José Francisco Correa da Serra to James Edward Smith, transcribed by Leighton from P. Smith 1832, 2: 210–11.
3
The reference is apparently to the Vineyard Nursery, Hammersmith, London, in which James Lee was a partner.
4
Probably the botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert, a friend of Smith’s (DNB).
5
CD attempted to repeat this experiment with Verbascum lychnitis, but without success. His experimental notes, dated 21 June 1863 (DAR 108: 5), state: Verbascum lychnitis, when struck does not cast corolla, nor do sepals close over ovarium. I believe flowers do not close. I believe V. phœniceum does not cast flowers [interl]; certainly sepals do not close over ovarium.—
6
Correa da Serra was Portugese; he fled to Britain in 1795 to escape the inquisition (P. Smith 1832, 2: 198–224).
7
Correa da Serra apparently refers to the Linnean Society, of which both he and Smith were fellows; however, he did not publish a paper on Verbascum in the society’s transactions, and no paper by Correa da Serra on this subject has been found (see Royal Society catalogue of scientific papers, and Reuss 1801–21).
8
P. Smith 1832, 2: 210–11 (see n. 2, above).

Bibliography

DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.

Reuss, Jeremias David. 1801–21. Repertorium commentationum a societatibus litterariis editarum. 16 vols. in 15. Göttingen, Germany: Henricum Dietrich.

Royal Society catalogue of scientific papers: Catalogue of scientific papers (1800–1900). Compiled and published by the Royal Society of London. 19 vols. and index (3 vols.). London: Royal Society of London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1867–1925.

Smith, Pleasance. 1832. Memoir and correspondence of the late Sir James Edward Smith, MD. 2 vols. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman.

Summary

His observations of varieties of Verbascum.

Reference to Abbé Correa in the Life of Sir J. E. Smith.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-4217F
From
William Allport Leighton
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
unstated
Source of text
DAR 108: 180
Physical description
A encl 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4217F,” accessed on 26 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4217F.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11

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