To J. D. Hooker 19 September [1873]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Sept. 19th
My dear Hooker
I hope to receive tomorrow morning the Norton’s address, & will enclose it.—2 I am particularly obliged about the Mimosa albida: could not a cutting be struck for me? but that I suppose would take more time & this wd be bad for me.— If a vigorous plant behaves as you say my notions are all knocked on the head, & much time wasted.3 I am impatient to read Tyndall’s answer (& Nature has just come) to Taits petty attack.4
The story about Drosera is too long for my strength today; but essentially the leaves act just like the stomach of a mammal. The acid which is essential for digestion is not secreted until they are excited; but I must not go on.
☞ Attend to this
Burdon Sanderson will give some grand facts at the Brit. Assoc. about Dionæa: he came here to see Drosera, as he was so surprised at what I told him.5
I will with pleasure give detailed instructions about experimenting on Nepenthes whenever you are ready; but you must get several reagents & doubly distilled water. If you fail in not having time I wd. undertake the job, & as I have everything ready & know what to do, it wd not take me much above a week or 10 days.6 Perhaps not so much; but I allways found that experimental work takes at least thrice as much time as I anticipated. I could keep Nepenthes for a time quite hot enough. You gave me years ago a Nepenthes, & it is still alive but very unhealthy, as it has been quite neglected.— I failed at that time from ill-health, when I thought of attacking it. Desmodium gyrans is throwing out new leaves splendidly7
My dear old fellow | Ever yours | Ch Darwin
P.S. The address has not come, but I am certain that
“Charles Norton Esq
Cambridge
Mass.
U. States”
will reach him.—
Could you anyhow spare time to come down here some Sunday soon.— I want much your advice on a family subject.8 And secondly I could give you better by talking than by writing all the suggestions for Nepenthes, which I have learnt by working on Drosera & Dionæa; not but what you could after a time have found out all & more I daresay.
Ch. D.
But I must not talk so much as I did on that last Sunday.9
I am extremely glad to hear about G. Henslow.—10
Footnotes
Bibliography
ANB: American national biography. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 vols. and supplement. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999–2002.
Summary
Obliged for information on Mimosa albida; if a vigorous plant behaves as JDH says, CD’s notions are all knocked on the head.
Anxious to read Tyndall’s answer to Tait [Nature 8 (1873): 399].
Drosera story too long for his strength. Essentially the leaves act just like stomach of an animal.
Burdon Sanderson will give some grand facts at BAAS about Dionaea.
Offers to help JDH with Nepenthes experiments. Finds experimental work always takes twice as much time as anticipated.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9059
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 277–9
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9059,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9059.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21