My dear Sir

I thank you cordially for all your kindness.² The case of the Muraltia, which you describe & figure so clearly is very curious; & I quite agree with you, the case is especially curious in the resemblance of the movement of the stamens to those in papilionaceous plants. I doubt whether the movement, at least in the latter, is due to irritability, nor is it a case of simple elasticity. The resemblance of your Muraltia to a heath, of which I believe there are other cases at the Cape is curious.³ I have formerly examined, but with no great care, our English Polygola⁴ & convinced myself that its fertilization depended on insects.

You have been extremely kind in taking such great trouble about expression, which is a subject that interests me to an unreasonable degree. That I sh^d receive answers written by the brother of a Kaffir chief is a truly wonderful fact in the progress of civilization.⁵

Thank you for telling me about the children pouting,—a gesture which I hear from N. America is common to Indian children.⁶ I shall be most grateful for any further trustworthy information. I believe the French are quite wrong in speaking of a “grief muscle”; the movement apparently results from a combined action of the upper orbicular & that part of the frontal muscle which is seated above the inner angle of the eyebrows.⁷ I enclose a poor photograph of a young woman who c^d voluntarily make this movement;⁸ but the eyebrows are hardly oblique enough; the transverse wrinkles on the forehead which extend only a short distance on each side of the centre are eminently characteristic; as is a slight swelling close above the inner end of the eyebrow. I sh^d be very glad to hear whether this expression can be seen in any savage race. The only chance w^d be visiting a person in anxiety or grief.

When I rec^d the locust-dung I c^d not imagine what it was, & I might have gone on guessing till doomsday. I will try the experiment carefully, but shall be as much surprized as interested if it sh^d prove to contain any seeds.⁹

With very sincere thanks | I remain my dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin