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Darwin Correspondence Project

To John Stevens Henslow   [25 July 1844]

Down near Bromley | Kent

Thursday.

My dear Henslow

In looking through my collection, I stumbled upon some rusty wheat from the N. Bank of the Plata & it occurred to me, as you have been working at wheat,1 that you might like to have the specimen, together with my rough notes, if not, the specimen & note can be thrown away together.

My more immediate object, however, in writing now, is to ask you to send me, if you can find quite easily the specimens, some bits of my Peat (with their country marked) for Ehrenberg. I am going to send another parcel to him. The specimens might be so small, that you could send them by Post.—

Did I give you a ball of white paint, with which the Fuegians colour themselves? if you can find it easily (& it is quite unimportant if you cannot) please to send me a little bit for the same end.2

I went to Hooker at Kew the other day3 & admired the place much. Young Hooker seems to be working away & making capital progress.—

I saw a circular from you there, from which I perceive you are at work on the state of the People, & great need there seems to be for this in your side, & indeed on all sides, of the country.—4 How I wish this house lay on the road to somewhere else, that we might have the chance of seeing you— we often regret on this one score having left London.

Ever yours | C. Darwin

Footnotes

See Henslow’s papers on wheat diseases, 1841a and 1841b.
See letter from C. G. Ehrenberg, 11 July 1844, in which he expressed interest in seeing additional specimens. CD had given the paint to Henslow for his museum, see Correspondence vol. 2, letter to J. S. Henslow, 16 September [1842].
Possibly Henslow 1844.

Bibliography

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

Henslow, John Stevens. 1844. Suggestions towards an enquiry into the present condition of the labouring population of Suffolk. Hadleigh.

Summary

Sends a specimen of rusty wheat from the banks of the Plata.

Asks for bits of peat he collected

and a bit of the paint used by Fuegians to colour themselves.

He will send these to C. G. Ehrenberg for analysis.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-765
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Stevens Henslow
Sent from
Down
Source of text
John Hay Library, Brown University (Albert E. Lownes Manuscript Collection)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 765,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-765.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3

letter