Dated by the relationship to the letter to George Bentham, 3 February [1862], and to the letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1862] (see n. 2, below); the intervening Saturday was 8 February.

CD had requested specimens of octandrous Melastomataceae in the letter to J. D. Hooker, [30 and 31 December 1861] (Correspondence vol. 9). In his reply, Hooker offered to send also a fresh tetrandrous specimen (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [1 January 1862]), but it appears that CD did not receive this specimen, since he asked George Bentham to describe the floral anatomy of tetrandrous Melastomataceae in his letter of 3 February [1862]. Hooker probably sent the ‘dried specimens’ in response to CD’s request to Bentham for information (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1862]). There is a description of CD’s observations on a dried specimen from Kew of the melastomad Heterocentron subtriplinervium in DAR 205.8: 48, dated 13 February 1862.