From T. H. Farrer 29 June 1870
Bd of Trade
29 June/70
My dear Mr Darwin
I have at last got a flower of Passiflora Princeps.1 You were quite right, as you seem always to be The lower or inner coronas, or whatever they are, which cover the nectary, neither fit close to the style, nor lap over one another so as to prevent the entrance of a stiff object. There are wide gaps by which a pin does get to the bottom and comes out covered with nectar. But the style is very long: the flower sub-erect: and, so far as I can see, the anthers and stigmas do not droop down as in P. Caerulea. The consequence is that the distance between these organs and the nectary & their relative position is such that a bee on the top of the outer coronas would not touch them. Add to this that the two outer coronas are very little developed: and that the third closes round the style so as to make it an inch from the entrance to the bottom of the nectary— I think with all this we have a correlation of parts suited for Humming birds & not for Bees.—though not exactly the correlation I noted in the others.2
I will certainly come and see you as you so kindly suggest—but am very busy till the Session is over—which I find the best thing. It is the leisure & the tired hours which are difficult to bear.3
Sincerely yours | T H Farrer
We have been deeply interested in watching the wonderful motions of Passifloras in climbing. They seek & find & hold on & pull up like an animal
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Has procured a Passiflora flower at last. Structure suited for humming-birds rather than bees.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7254
- From
- Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Board of Trade
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 65
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7254,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7254.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18