Dear Oliver

I very much wish you w^d observe one point for me, which will only require your looking once carefully at Nepenthes. Do the tips of the young leaves which catch hold of any support develope pitchers, or is it an alternative process of clasping or pitcher-forming?²

My plants will not grow vigorously, & will catch nothing; perhaps young plants do not climb.³ If you are able to observe this for me, please tell me whether the tips of the young leaves are naturally hooked, or only curved downwards, before catching. I wish you c^d feel interest enough yourself on the point to put a twig under the tip of a young leaf & afterwards see if it catches hold & let me quote you.— I am much the most curious about the first point.

Many thanks for your paper on legumes which has interested me much.⁴ If I c^d make out a little about Nepenthes I think I sh^d understand moderately well every class of climbers, & I do not yet quite despair of my plants growing

Dear Oliver | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Mohl gives capital discussions in his little Book, on homologies of various tendrils,⁵ on which subject you were so kind as to aid me.—⁶ Of course, I do not pretend in the least to form any opinion of my own on such points.—