From Philip Henry Gosse 5 April 1864
Sandhurst. Torquay
April 5. 1864
My dear Sir
You frequently allude to the emission of pollen-tubes;1 can you (without much trouble) tell me how to see & identify these. I do not know what to look for, or where, or how.2
I am succeeding in impregnating Orchids of widely different genera with the pollinia of each other.3 Is not this something new?
I see Catasetum is attracting notice.4 In a barrel of Orchids that was sent me last Autumn from the Amazon, there were many great masses of Catasetum tridentatum; of very large bulbs. Do you know any one who would exchange for these, other Orchids, such as Vanda, or Phalænopsis,—even small bits? As as I have much more than I care to grow, of Catasetum.
Believe me | Yours very truly | P. H. Gosse
C. Darwin Esqe
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Crüger, Hermann. 1864. A few notes on the fecundation of orchids and their morphology. [Read 3 March 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 127–35.
Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. New edition, revised with the assistance of Christine Ellwood. London: Taylor & Francis and the Natural History Museum. Bristol, Pa.: Taylor & Francis.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
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.
‘Three sexual forms of Catasetum tridentatum’: On the three remarkable sexual forms of Catasetum tridentatum, an orchid in the possession of the Linnean Society. By Charles Darwin. [Read 3 April 1862.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 6 (1862): 151–7. [Collected papers 2: 63–70.]
Summary
Asks how he can identify pollen-tubes.
Has succeeded in impregnating orchids of widely different genera with each other’s pollinia. "Is not this something new?"
Offers to exchange Catasetum for other varieties.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4451
- From
- Philip Henry Gosse
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Torquay
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 79
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4451,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4451.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12