From Francis Darwin [16 or 17 August 1873]1
Pantlludw | Machynlleth
Dear Father
I find our pea is L. sylvestris not maritimus; I very stupidly took it for granted it must be maritimus, as it grew on the cliff, luckily I thought I would look & make sure.2 Isnt it odd the bees should bite there and not the garden ones, wh Bentham says is only a broad leaved variety—3 I think I have made out why they split to the right of the loose stamen but I’m not certain yet.
In very young buds the brush of the style points directly backwards as in this figure so that it would not brush the bee, but in old peas it is twisted so that the direction of the hairs is perpr to paper in my figure; and as the bee goes in it always comes up on his right side & brushes him.4 In the vetch where the tuft of hair is just the reverse, there is no twisting as it would easily brush the bee without and here the pod in growing does not split up the tube to the right of the loose stamen but lifts it up like a lid as it grows, show’g that it is the twisting that makes the tube in peas split to the right of the stamen— We will make it out—& I will explain better—
I have no time as I must be off | Yrs affec | FD
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bentham, George. 1865b. Handbook of the British flora; a description of the flowering plants and ferns indigenous to, or naturalized in, the British Isles. For the use of beginners and amateurs. 2 vols. London: Lovell Reeve & Co.
Westerkamp, Christian. 1993. The co-operation between the asymmetric flower of Lathyrus latifolius (Fabaceae–Vicieae) and its visitors. Phyton: annales rei botanicae 33: 121–37.
Summary
Gives his opinion on why tubes of peas split to the right of the loose stamens [inLathyrus sylvestris].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9012
- From
- Francis Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Machynlleth
- Source of text
- DAR 77: 140–1
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9012,” accessed on 13 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9012.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21