Dear Darwin

Your postal of 20^th Nov. received.¹

I know nothing about the Indian species of Hottonia. Somebody saying (I can’t at this moment tell who*) that H. palustris is dimorphous; I thought I had it clear that our H. inflata was too—but only from dried specimens. (I have not for years seen it growing. I must get it & have it looked to.) I fear I judged so hastily from finding some young fruit tipped with extremely short style, others with style of fair length, but, as you know, short indeed compared with either form of H. palustris.— But now, on looking out various flowers, I see it must be, as you say, not structurally dimorphic.² And turning to a forgotten observation of dear old Torrey I see what misled me.³

I have Torrey’s note—the essential part of it copied for you. The subsessile stigmas must have belonged to cleistogenous flowers.

Torrey cannot mean of course—that all the flowers of H. inflata are cleistogenous,—only some of the earlier ones. All the later ones at least open out their well-formed corolla, &c—

Curious that one species should take pains to close-fertilize some flowers—the other to cross all. ⁠⟨⁠15 lines excised⁠⟩⁠

Now I want to beg of you to consider about a name for this kind of thing,—on which, as a good judge, you could Bentham,—or indeed, Hooker,⁴ if he can give it attention.—

This matter will need to come into generic or specific ⁠⟨⁠15 lines excised⁠⟩⁠

characters, and therefore wants a terse and unambiguous mode of expression in a single word.

My old expression 30 or so years ago diœcio-dimorphous—you reasonably objected to implying separation of sexes (which tho’ it need not.) Yours of dimorphous should be, as the lawyers say void for vagueness, there being plenty of other kinds of dimorphism in flowers.

Hildebrands, of heterostylous—the difference being in other things as well as style, and, I think, possible sometimes not in the style. The term will not work well in characters, whether Latin or English.— I have proposed, accordingly—in a little article not yet published—to use the term heterogone in other forms heterogonous in Latin Flores heterogoni, with the counterpart homogone, homogonous, Flores homogoni.

This means, you see, explicitly, diverse genitalia, and the [G[goni,i]G] is used as in the common botanical term perigonium.⁵ I wish you would adopt this. I am very glad you will re-edit & collect those papers.

Yours ever, | A. Gray

*Oh yes, I now have Scott’s & your paper before me!⁶