To A. G. More 7 July [1861]1
2. Hesketh Crescent | Torquay
July 7th
My dear Sir
I have been looking over my notes on E. palustris & shd. much like to see a few more flowers just on point of opening.2 Should you think me very unreasonable if I were to ask you to send me a few: I have enquired and am told it does not grow here.—
I have never heard whether it grows near you: if it does & you could visit the spot twice, I would ask you to try a little experiment, viz to cut off the terminal & movable division of the Labellum in 6 or 8 flowers which had not quite opened & which therefore could not have been visited by insects; & mark these flowers with little bits of thread & then see if these set pods as well as the other flowers.— But this little experiment would be useless if this is a species which does not freely in ordinary cases set pods.— I would not on any account have you take much trouble to try this; but if I had the opportunity I shd. try it for bare chance: of its showing that this terminal portion of Labellum was of use, as I suspect, in guiding and aiding some unknown insect in its proper function of fertilising the flowers.—3
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Summary
Asks for more flowers of Epipactis palustris. Asks AGM to experiment on Epipactis.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3203
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Alexander Goodman More
- Sent from
- Torquay
- Source of text
- Royal Irish Academy (A. G. More papers RIA MS 4 B 46)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3203,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3203.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9