From John Price 24 April 1869
38 Watergate St Chester
Ap 24. 1869
My dear Darwin/
It is not seeds that I have ever tried to grow, but twigs of willow & perhaps poplar with 1 or 2 buds on.1 I am now trying birch (Betula nana probably)2 which look very lively. But I never suceeded with any thing but a gramineous plant (Cyperus?)3 of which the Ptarmigan had extracted the very core, almost like a bulb. They shot up 1 inch & I (sicut mens est meus)4 forgot to water them. This incapacitates me from any experiments, or I should have done something in that line, by this time(?) I have had to give up little half-hour jobs, after trying to remember them for 30 years or more, in vain. You result-mongers must take the will for the deed.
The disappt to me is a sore trial, you may suppose. If I were rich, I shd. keep a Curate, in that sense
I may send you a few sketches of my Drake with this; & some Card. pratensis for the Babbies 5 (alas! thorough bred Saxons).
Fra. Parkers are very near neighbours, & good friends6
Your’s very truly | J. Price
CD annotations
Footnotes
Summary
Has experimented with some success in growing twigs with buds
and a grass plant from which a ptarmigan had extracted the core.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6712
- From
- John Price
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Chester
- Source of text
- DAR 205.2 (Letters): 248
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6712,” accessed on 29 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6712.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17