From Francis Darwin [26? October 1873]1
1 Enormously the largest number of Desmodium are trifoliate; some are unifoliate tre and uni leaves sometimes occurring in the same plant—2 In the uni ones the stipellæ of the lateral leaflets could not be seen— There were no intermediate leaves between uni & tri these lat: leaflets are either present & of normal size or quite gone— The general relation between lat & term leaflets which exists through the whole genus (except D gyrans3 and a very few others) is this; the terminal leaflet is bigger than the lateral ones about in the propn term is to lat. as 7-:6- Dr Hooker4 called the later subequal to the terminal ones— The relation is very variable—
2 D-gyroides5 sometimes nearly subequal—see plan6
3 None have tendrils; no evidence of any being climbers—
Second Letter7
District makes no difference in the relation of lat. to term in D. gyrans— There were very small points to some leaves in some species but not anything but what is found in many leguminosæ—(Dr H)
The little leaflets appear very fugacious8 in D. Gyrans being often broken off—Dr H believes one must have dropped off in the ones you looked at— The leaflets are opposite.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Summary
Observations on the leaves of Desmodium. Most are trifoliate; none has tendrils. Gives some comments from Hooker.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9115
- From
- Francis Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 209.2: 21–2
- Physical description
- Amem 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9115,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9115.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21