To G. H. K. Thwaites 29 July [1863]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
July 29th
My dear Thwaites
I thank you sincerely for the seed of Limnanthemium, which I have planted, & if the plants will flower, they will be a treasure to me.2
The view on the conjugation of Algæ is familiar to me from a pamphet which you sent me many years ago, & which records a remarkable double embryo in Fuchsia to which I have lately had to refer.3 This view of Algæ prefiguring the higher stages of reproduction has since reading your paper always seemed probable to me.—
I was glad to see the Cassia & to hear of the two forms of anthers in the same flower.4 This class of gradation always seems to me very interesting. What a curious flower that of the Cassia. Mr Glennie ought to watch it & see how insects visit it; I should expect that the pistil would change its position during inflorescence.5 You ask for my “carte de visite”; but I have never been done; I can only send you a rather poor small photograph made by my son.—6
With very sincere thanks & good wishes, | believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Thwaites, George Henry Kendrick. 1848. Further observations on the Diatomaceæ; with descriptions of new genera and species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 2d ser. 1: 161–72.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Thanks GHKT for Limnanthemum seed.
Comments on his view of algal reproduction.
Discusses flower of Cassia.
Sends photograph of himself.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4256
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George Henry Kendrick Thwaites
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.295)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4256,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4256.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11