To J. D. Hooker 20 March [1877]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
March 20th
My dear Hooker
I am ashamed of myself to have asked Oliver to take an unreasonable amount of labour, but indeed I did not foresee that this would be the case, & I beg you to tell him so.— Though the point is a rather curious one in my eyes, I do not think that it wd be worth asking to Frank to give up two days for it, but he is very much obliged for your kind invitation.—2 Hildebrand formerly attended to the cleistogamic flowers of Oxalis, & I have written to him & he perhaps will without much trouble know at once where to look & send me specimens.3
I have seen your notice about Forsythia & you I observe, consider the plants diœious, but the specimens sent me from Kew were clearly heterostyled, with differently sized pollen-grains & other usual differences in the 2 forms of heterostyled plants.4
Do not forget to tell Oliver how sorry I am to have troubled him.
Ever yours | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.
Summary
CD apologises for his burdensome request of Oliver.
Criticises JDH’s notice on Forsythia, which JDH said was dioecious. Forsythia sent to CD from Kew was heterostylous.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10906
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 437–8
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10906,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10906.xml
