Most distinguished man

I thank you for the courteous words in your esteemed letter of the 13th of the month,² and no less do I thank you for the promise of letting me have your work on insectivorous plants, a work that surely deserves its place next to all your other writings, which have contributed so much to the expansion of the field of science. I shall prepare a summary of this latest publication of yours for the Annuario scientifico italiano for 1876.³

The topic interests me very much because I myself spent a little time on it a few years ago. I published a brief account “sulle piante a bicchieri” in the Nuovo Giornale botanico italiano.⁴ This note provoked the sarcasm of Prof. Mantegazza, who ridiculed the idea of carnivorous plants. It strikes me though that the said professor doesn’t have much of a point to make. I know that all he has published are unfounded and superficial attacks on the principle of sexual selection, a principle so brilliantly advocated by your honour, of whose veracity I am absolutely persuaded.⁵ Indeed, the evidence of my studies on dichogamy indirectly support the said principle.⁶

With the best wishes for your health I remain with the most heartfelt gratitude | Your faithful disciple | Federico Delpino