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To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   1 September [1879]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Sept. 1st

My dear Dyer

It wd. be a kindness if you or anyone at Kew can by good chance name the plant of which I send leaves. It presented the extremely rare case of its cotyledons sleeping by bending vertically down at night.—2

It came up by chance in pot in which San-foin seeds had been sown, & so is probably British.3 It looked to me like a Geranium. It was placed in pot by itself in greenhouse & grew to large size, as you will see by withered leaves; for it was neglected when we were at Coniston & our gardener was ill.—4

It has not flowered, so is I suppose a biennial or perennial.—

If you can tell me that it must be one out of 2 or 3 species, this wd be an aid.—

We enjoyed our stay at Coniston which is wonderfully beautiful, notwithstanding the weather, & I enjoy still more getting back to work.—

I shall be glad to hear that you are having some rest.—

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

I have gummed one old leaf on card to show size.—

[Enclosure]

diagram

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to CD’s stay in Coniston (see n. 4, below).
2
In Movement in plants, p. 304, CD described the cotyledons of a seedling bending perpendicularly downwards at night; the plant later died and was sent to Kew, where it was identified as probably Geranium rotundifolium.
3
Sanfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) is a member of pea family (Fabaceae), and is commonly found in chalk grassland in Britain.
4
CD replaced his head gardener, Henry Lettington, later in 1879 (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 1 October [1879], n. 2). The Darwins had stayed in Coniston in the Lake District from 2 to 27 August 1879 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Bibliography

Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.

Summary

Wants a plant that shows interesting sleep movements identified.

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12209,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12209.xml

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