To Wilhelm Pfeffer 23 March 1879
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Mar 23. 1879
Dear Sir,
I hope that you will excuse me for taking the liberty to trouble you with a question. I wish to make a list of so called sleeping plants, and I should consequently be very much obliged if you could inform me at about what angle either above or beneath the horizon the leaves of Siegesbeckia flexuosa, Wigandia rosea and Malva sp (p 29) stand during the night. These plants are mentioned by you in your Periodische Bewegungen (the latter at p 29) but you do not specify the position occupied by their leaves at night.1 I could not procure seeds of S. flexuosa, nor can I discover any such name;2 but I sowed seeds of S. orientalis3 and its leaves did not sleep, but this may have been owing to the plants not having been healthy, & I will sow more. If you have by chance observed, since the publication of your valuable work, other plants the leaves of which assume a vertical or nearly vertical position at night, I should be grateful for the information. In case you are so kind as to answer this letter I should be much obliged if you would write in Italian character as I do not read the German handwriting4
I remain with much respect | dear Sir, | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Pfeffer, Wilhelm. 1875. Die periodische Bewegungen der Blattorgane. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann.
Summary
Seeks clarification of statements on sleep movements on p. 29 of WFPP’s work [Die periodischen Bewegungen der Blattorgane (1875)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11948
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp (Wilhelm) Pfeffer
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Tenri Central Library, Tenri University, Nara
- Physical description
- LS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11948,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11948.xml