To Daniel Oliver 24 April [1862]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. | S.E.
April. 24th
Dear Oliver.
Many thanks for Oxalis; of 38 flowers sent 24 are long-styled & 14 short-styled, just as in the flowers here; but whether this depends on mere useless variability or on useful dimorphism, I suspect experiment will alone show:2 I have got plants in pots for next spring.
I am quite aware the other æstival flower is a very much more curious case. I return 6d stamp which I suppose is a Kew affair.—
Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Summary
Thanks for Oxalis. Only experimentation will show whether disproportion of long- to short-styled flowers is a functional dimorphism.
Case of aestival flowers is very curious.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3516
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Daniel Oliver
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 261.10: 47 (EH 88206030)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3516,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3516.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10
