To J. D. Hooker [before 25 October 1873]
Try Fibrin (as standard test)
— cartilage (for effect)
— fibro-cartilage, as will not fully digest, but rendered hyaline by Drosera.
Inset in secretion and water for some time
Pour out of virgin pitcher some secretion in water glass and with it digest a 1/20th of inch cube of albumen. If not, then try the same with some secretion from a pitcher which is in the act of Digestion. Seems to me very important, whether the ferment is secreted only from a stimulus. I understand secretion of virgin pitcher is acid. We could try citric acid wth pepsin if we knew proportion of citric acid in the secretion.
Will you put 6 cabbage-seeds and 3 Peas in secretion and in water for 4 days, and then lay on damp sand under cover in your room and see if they equally germinate. If the Nepenthes seeds do germinate see whether edge of cotyledons &c. are browned and injured.
Summary
Suggests experiments to try [with Nepenthes].
Asks JDH to test whether cabbage seeds and peas exposed to the ferment germinate.
Cancel: same as 9523.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9112
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 151: 330
- Physical description
- C 1p inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9112,” accessed on 26 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9112.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21