[Enclosure]

Broomfield | Sheffield.

Sep 9/74

My dear Sir

I have arranged to be with M^r. Sawkins⁵ on Tuesday Sep 29, and will call on you at Kew either that day or the next. I have written out a full account of my ideas on the subject I named to you, and shall be glad to have your best council. I will not enter into the question now, since it will be so much better to do so when we can go into it more thoroughly. I hope the above named time will be when you will be at home.

At the request of Professor A. W. Bennett⁶ I have been examining the colouring of the hairs &c of Drosera. I was prepared to expect it possible that they might have contained something special, since the glands on the sepals of Hypericum montanum⁷ &c &c contain an entirely unique substance, but the hairs of Drosera are coloured red by the commonest species of erythrophyll⁸ which is often met with in leaves with low vitality, and in parts, like the petioles, which carry on leaf-functions in a very imperfect manner. All that can be said, therefore, is that the hairs (or tentacles) are coloured like parts of a leaf which do not fulfill their proper office. ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ leaves, which is not saying much, and does not explain their action in any way.

Yours very truly | H. C. Sorby