Dear Sir

I have been looking amongst the herbaceous beds & enclose a few Lythraceae & Onagraceae which may interest you a little.¹

Our Lythrums—forms of L. salicaria I daresay most of them—are going back. Lopezia (Onagr.) is a curious thing, but I never studied its economy. I do not recollect any additional plants with 2-colored anthers tho’ I think they might be looked for amongst tetramerous genera with 8 stamens & pentam^s. with 10—as in the latter—Saxifrages—in former Melast^æ. or Onagrac^æ.—

I fancy the colour of anthers may be used by some botanists in discriminating critical species—as in Drosera rotundifolia (“white”) & D. intermedia (“yellow”).

Clarkia elegans—of which a scrap is put in may be the same with your plant.—²

I am busy examin^g. wood structure of D^r. Hooker’s Welwitschia.³ It is very curious & puzzling. I did hope to have visited Mull with D^r. H. to see the place where the Duke Argyle found the Tertiary leaf-prints, but have had to give it up,—having left too early⁴

Very sincerely yours | Dan^l. Oliver

Chas. Darwin, Esq.