Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your le. & present of the Florist.—² You have been scrupulous in your manipulation & memoranda;³ but I am surprised that you have not protected as it appears the flowers from insects. I have found this indispensable in most of the [various] experiments wh. I have made during last 5 year.— These have been made for a distinct purpose from yours, & varieties have been avoided, & when employed no record was kept of the transmittance of character from the parents, in this I grieve to say I cannot aid you.—⁴ Before long a tr. of G^s. work will be published by Ray Soc.⁵ He is as emphatic as you are but in an opposite direction; viz that there is no difference in power of transfer by the f & m.; but he made his [illeg] experiments on distinct species, in which difference of constitution w^d not probably come into play.—

As you have found out that the D. of Cornwall &c is fertile with its own pollen,⁶ & with that of some other varieties, when it is sterile with other vars, you have made in my opinion a remarkable discovery. I assume that the four experimented on are vars. ie not different in a state of nature, & that you have made many trials.—⁷ This discovery will, however, interest only a few of the more philosophical naturalists; & will I feel sure be easily lost to science, if published only in Hort. Journ. & without in much fuller detail than that given in the G. Chronicle.—⁸

Permit me, therefore, to urge on you to draw up a full account,— giving names of vars. (which were sterile with the D. of Cornwall &c) & reason for believing that they are vars— the number of trials made, both on the male & fem side &c—& send the account to some Botanical Journal. or Soc.— The Linnean Soc w^d be the most appropriate; & your paper w^d then be sent on to all the Scientific Soc. of Europe.—⁹ I sh^d be glad to aid in draw attention to it by a letter to Nature.¹⁰ If you will do this it w^d be advisable perhaps I think to begin your paper by stating that you had discovered or raised, (as the case may be) vars of Pelargonium which were fertile with their own pollen &c &c &c, — & in so far partook of the character of true & distinct species—

It w^d further be well to give full details about the converse case of the Ivy-leaved P., in which a var has assumed an abnormal degree of fertility.—¹¹ In my Var. under Dom Vol. 2. p. 108 you will find an account of the sole [acknowledged] case, ever recorded in Nicotiana.—¹²

I hope that you will excuse the familiarity with which I have written to you & I remain— | C. D.