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Darwin Correspondence Project

From C. F. Austin   February 1879

Closter, N. J.

Feb. 1879.

Dr. Chas. Darwin

Honored Sir:

I herewith send a copy of the Torrey Bot. Club. Bulletin, containing an account of a fungus which exhales chlorine,—believing the fact there published will interest you.1

My chief object in writing to you at this time is to lay before you the facts of a still more wonderful discovery made by me on the morning of the 25th of June 1852: viz. a pair of perfectly formed beetles in the place of anthers, in a flower of Cypripedium pubescens.2 They were attached to the thick filaments by the underside of their abdomen. by actual growth: at least so it appeared. The abdomen was of about the same size, form & color (yellow) as is usual in the anthers of this plant. The insects were similar in size, and form; but the color of one appeared to be changing to black, the head and thorax being of a dark color; the other was yellow throughout. Their position was perfect⁠⟨⁠ly⁠⟩⁠ symmetrical; they being inclined downwards and inwards both to the same degree. Their form and external organs, so far as observed, were perfect: that is their legs, antennae and eyes. Their eyes struck me as being exceedingly bright, and as I looked at them I experienced a queer sensation: for their wonderfully brilliant eyes suggested great shyness, and yet they gave no other sign of fear. As I looked at them I could not help feeling as if I was in the presence of sentient (yet mute) beings   I almost imagined that I could see them striving—as one in a nightmare—to get away from my presence. I looked at them a hundred times—I should say;—and examined them from every possible standpoint to see if there was any deception in the mode by which they were attached to the plant: and in every instance, they appeared to be attached by actual growth, the same as were the lip of the corolla, or even the short filaments themselves to which they were attached.

I showed the flower, with the insects attached, to several persons; but none of them appeared to appreciate it: and knowing the stupidity of country people ⁠⟨⁠gen⁠⟩⁠erally I did not wonder at it. And I myself was so stupid as to fail in my attempt to preserve the specimen. I was totally ignorant at the time, of Natural science and had never had much training or experience except at hard farm work, and knew absolutely nothing about preserving plants or insects: besides I had the idea that such phenomena could not be rare, and really expected that I could go out any day in the flowering time of the plant and find a similar thing— otherwise I should have taken the specimen immediately to some person who could instruct me how to preserve it.

I searched a good deal for the plant immediately afterwards, but could not find another one   The next year I found one fine stool of it with about a dozen flowers: ⁠⟨⁠and⁠⟩⁠ I did not see the plant again until the spring of 1860. when I saw several hundred of them. I examined most of these but could find nothing unusual or strange about them. Since then I have not seen a dozen plants of it, although I have searched much for it (it being extremely rare in this region). I have hopelessly deferred attempting to make this discovery public, until I could verify it by a similar one; I have thought that if some society would offer a liberal reward (and publish it widely) for a rediscovery of this or a similar phenomenon that it would set a host of observers watching for it; and there would be a strong probability of its being again found. The thorax & heads of the insects were small in proportion to the abdomen. Upon examining flowers of the plant the next year I was struck with the similarity between the anthers & the abdomen of the insects mentioned.

Although many years have passed since that mysterious phenomenon was witnessed by me my recollection of it is still very vivid. Many is the time that I have pondered over it despairing of ever being so fortunate as to be able to interpret it. My last hope is that you may be able to throw some light on it.

Cordially “yours in the faith” | Coe F. Austin, | Closter, New Jersey. | U.S.A.

Chas Darwin, L, L, D.,

Down, | Beckenham, | Kent, | England.

Footnotes

Austin described the fungus Agaricus chlorinosmus (a synonym of Amanita chlorinosma) in December 1878 in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 6 (1875–9): 278–9. He considered its exhalation of chlorine an important scientific discovery, and stated: ‘Here we have chlorine, hitherto considered a potent destroyer of all organic substances, actually exhaled by a living organism’ (ibid., p. 278). He defended his view in a note in March 1879, maintaining that the exhalation was more likely to be chlorine than a hitherto unknown substance with same odour; odour was the most delicate and reliable test for chlorine, and plants were said to exhale ozone, which had the same disinfectant properties as chlorine (ibid., p. 298).
CD described the conical trap-like contrivances of Cypripedium pubescens (a synonym of C. parviflorum var. pubescens, greater yellow lady’s slipper) to deposit pollen on insects in Orchids 2d ed., p. 230. The species is normally visited by small to medium-sized bees (Andrena sp. or Osmia sp.); CD’s experiments were with Andrena bees (op. cit.). Many species of pollen beetle (e.g. Trichiotinus assimilis, hairy bee mimic) have been observed in Cypripedium flowers, but this is rare (Cingel 2001, p. 42).

Bibliography

Cingel, Nelis A. van der. 2001. An atlas of orchid pollination: America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Rotterdam: Balkema.

Summary

Encloses Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, with account of a fungus that exhales chlorine;

relates his discovery in 1852 of a flowering plant that had "perfectly formed beetles" in the place of anthers.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11853
From
Coe Finch Austin
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Closter, N.J.
Source of text
DAR 159: 130
Physical description
ALS 4pp damaged

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11853,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11853.xml

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