My dear Hooker

I am sorry for you about the inscription, which has almost burst me.² We think there are too many plurals in yours, & when read aloud it hisses like a goose. I think the omission of some words makes it much stronger, see enclosed.— “World” is much stronger & truer than “public”. As Lyell wrote various other books & memoirs, I have some little doubt about “Principles of Geology”—

People here do not like your “enduring value” it sounds almost an anticlimax— they do not much like my “endure or “last as long science lasts.”— If one reads a sentence often enough it always becomes odious. God Help you—

I am so glad to hear about M^r Vigner’s (??) success.—³ I have never heard from that poor devil L. Tait, since I sent him an abstract of the Referee’s report.—⁴ By the way I have agreed to communicate another paper from Hubert Airy to the R. Soc^y, for which I daresay you will blame me; but I think his instrument for taking angles easily may be very useful & I cannot get it out of my head that he is on the right course in explaining phyllotaxis by the mutual pressure of very young buds.—⁵

Pray accept my thanks for lending me Paxtons book & breaking all rules: it shall be returned in at furthest 2 or 3 days.—⁶

And now I must tell you about Franks discovery, but please do not mention it, in case that it sh^d. break down, but I am almost sure it will not.—⁷ The cups of the Dipsacus are lined with little glands; but they do not secrete digestive fluid, nor do they directly absorb putrefying fluid; but they emit (always from the summit) a little mass of sarcode when when surrounded by nitrogenous fluid sends forth long filaments, in constant movement, absolutely like the pseudopodia of one of the protozoa or of an Amœba; & these filaments seem to catch & involve solid particles, (which may be seen travelling in the filaments,) also just like an amœba or white blood-corpuscle. All these facts will have to be observed again & again; but I have hardly a doubt that here we have a plant catching & feeding on solid particles of decaying insects. When the sarcode is protruded from a gland under the microscope & a minute quantity of alcohol or other irritant is sucked under the covering glass, it is wonderful as I have witnessed how quickly the sarcode is all withdrawn. Is not this a surprising discovery if it all holds good?—

Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin

M^rs Lyell’s inscriptions were not enclosed.⁸