My dear Mr Darwin

I will at once give you Paynes experience about leaves.¹ He says that with plenty of air water does not hurt them. A shower in the hottest day will do no harm, out of doors,, unless an unusually intense hot gleam directly follows. Under glass he can syringe even foliage plants on the hottest day if the sashes are well open— But if the sashes are closed and there is no draft & no evaporation water with the sun on it injures the leaves. At present in the green house is an abundant crop of grapes on healthy vines, which are in full foliage. Some few of the leaves are discoloured and dead—and this, Payne says, is caused by the condensation of moisture on the glass at night dropping on the leaves and acting on them in the morning sun before the sashes are open.

I will have another look at Coronilla; & will try to get some more of that tiresome genus.² What if it should be right, and I wrong altogether!

I have been making a list of the vegetation on the top of the hill & comparing it with one I made 3 years since, shortly after my predecessor ploughed it. One thing strikes me—viz^t how much more monotonous the vegetation has become—Gorse: broom: bracken: thyme: plantago lanceolata:³ & one or two others cover the ground and have ousted a number of plants—geraniums—ornithopus—rumex:—veronicas—stellarias—&c⁴ which formerly shared the ground with them. It is an illustration of how, under changed circumstances, (vizt ploughing,) there is place for new things: and how under fixed conditions the more favoured genera & species predominate; and the less favoured diminish & vanish— How much variety do we not owe to cultivation?

You could not have enjoyed your stay here more than we enjoyed having you—⁵ And we trust that having found your way here you will find it again and see how the children and “Cornulla” and the landscape gardening get on. Which is the most important of them?

Sincerely yours | T H Farrer