From Edward Frankland 15 April 1874
14 Lancaster Gate | Hyde Park W.
April 15/74
Dear Mr. Darwin
Herewith I send you a small quantity of phosphate of lime free from animal matter.1 It has not exactly the composition of bone-ash but nearly so. If you would like to try real bone ash, put a small piece of bone in the fire & after an hour or so rake it out, pick out the white portions & crush them to a convenient form for your experiments. I should not anticipate that Drosera could deal with bone-ash so prepared, because it has been made less easily assimilable by the fire.2 The enclosed sample has been precipitated from solution & is therefore in the most favourable condition for assimilation.
I shall be glad to send you some weak sewage water when you are ready for it.3
Believe me | Yours sincerely | E. Frankland
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Sends some phosphates of lime free of animal matter [see Insectivorous plants, p. 109].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9411
- From
- Edward Frankland
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Lancaster Gate, 14
- Source of text
- DAR 58.1: 49–50
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9411,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9411.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22