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Darwin Correspondence Project

To D. F. Nevill   12 September [1874]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Sept. 12th

Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill

I have never seen the Utricularia of which Dr. Hooker told me & which I am nearly sure is the one which you have so very kindly sent me;2 & therefore I do not know what the bladders are like. From analogy I suppose that they are little globular bodies borne on separate footstalks. All that I can see on the young plant sent to me, are slight swellings in the footstalks of the leaves. Dr Hooker will be here in a fortnight, & then I will consult him.3 It would be a very great kindness if you would tell your head gardener to look at the young plants, as they grow a little taller & observe whether any little balls or bladders are produced on little short footstalks, & if so let me see the plants.— Whether with my indifferent means & ignorant gardener I shall succeed in growing the Utricularia, I know not.—4

I have much pleasure in enclosing my photograph.—5

Your Siamese cat must be a very curious animal.6

Pray believe me | Your Ladyships | Most truly obliged | Ch. Darwin

P.S. | I shd guess that the so-called bladders on your Utricularia wd be about as big as one or two pin’s head, & carried on a short footstalk; & it is the internal structure of these bodies which I am so anxious to examine

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to D. F. Nevill, 11 September [1874].
See letters to D. F. Nevill, 7 September 1874 and n. 2, and 11 September [1874]. No letter from Joseph Dalton Hooker discussing the epiphytic bladderwort Utricularia montana has been found. Utricularia montana is a synonym of U. alpina. CD had asked for an epiphytic species of Utricularia in his letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 28 [July 1874].
Hooker visited Down on 26 September 1874 (letter from J. D. Hooker, 23 September 1874).
CD’s gardener was Henry Lettington. Nevill’s head gardener was James Vair.
Nevill had requested a carte de visite of CD in her letter of [11 September 1874].

Summary

CD has never before seen the Utricularia DN has sent. Hooker had told him about it. Asks that her gardener observe young Utricularia: CD is interested in internal structure of little balls on bladders.

Sends photograph.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9634
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Dorothy Fanny Walpole/Dorothy Fanny Nevill
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9634,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9634.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22

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