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From J. T. Moggridge   22 April [1867]1

St. Roch.

Ap. 22.

Dear Mr. Darwin

I send by private hand a few plants of Orchis intacta Link— These are the best I can get but are rather far gone—2

This plant remains but a very short time in flower—

I have not been able to find any insect visiting the flowers; but as the pollen-grains are sufficiently loose & light to adhere to the dissecting needle when gently introduced within the hood of the flower, I think that a minute insect would probably bear away a grain or two in like manner.—

In rather advanced flowers the pollen-grains seem to lie quite loose round & on the stigmatic surface, & any moist object—or even a dry one as the needle—carries away pollen-grains—3

We propose to leave Mentone on May 6th. & to be in London (adress care of Nevil Maskelyne Esqr. 112 Gloucester Terrace | Hyde Park.) on May 18th.

If any plant is wanted from here which I can bring you, pray write & tell me—

Yrs. most sincerely | J. Traherne Moggridge.

Footnotes

1
The year is established from the address, and from a botanical note made by CD concerning the specimens sent by Moggridge. Moggridge, who regularly spent the winter in the south of France, wrote to CD from St Roch, Mentone, on 9 November [1866] (see Correspondence vol. 14), 6 March [1867], and 15 March [1867]. In earlier years, he wrote from other addresses. CD made a note dated 1868: ‘Orchis intacta from Mr Moggridge in Italy— flowered under net and almost every flower produced five Pods’ (DAR 70: 91). (Mentone is very close to the border between France and Italy.) Since Orchis intacta flowers in late winter and early spring, the note must have been made no earlier than the year after CD received the specimens.
2
CD mentioned Moggridge’s sending plants of Orchis or Neotinea intacta in ‘Fertilization of orchids’, p. 143 (Collected papers 2: 140–1), and in Orchids 2d ed., p. 27.
3
In ‘Fertilisation of orchids’, p. 143 (Collected papers 2: 140–1), CD concluded that Neotinea intacta was adapted for both self-fertilisation and crossing. Orchis intacta and Neotinea intacta are synonyms of N. maculata, the dense-flowered orchid.

Bibliography

Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

‘Fertilization of orchids’: Notes on the fertilization of orchids. By Charles Darwin. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [Collected papers 2: 138–56.]

Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.

Summary

Sends Orchis.

Is coming to London.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-5511
From
John Traherne Moggridge
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Mentone
Source of text
DAR 171: 211
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5511,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5511.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15

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