My dear Sir/

Many thanks to you for forwarding D^r. Bonavia’s letter & sketches— Of the former at any rate I shall make use in the Chronicle—¹

Judging from the figure & description the case seems similar to that of Laburnum mentioned by you in “Anim. & Plants under domestication”—² I have seen a similar state of things in Lupin. Often a sixth element is formed but this does not appear in the Clitoria— It has always been a puzzle to me to account for this very frequent additional of a sixth petal in pelorised flowers— I do not know whether the supernumerary organ be an independent growth or a split off from one of the others during development³   One never gets these flowers except in the fully developed condition & so cannot trace the organogenesis

—In the Lupin & Laburnum the style w^h. is usually curved up towards the Vexillum is straight—just as might be expected. D^r. Bonavia doesn’t tells us whether or no this was the case in his Clitoria.

The æstivation (quincuncial) of the peloric Clitoria is just that of Rosaceæ   in truth I don’t see how one could distinguish such a flower from Rosaceæ.⁴

It is interesting also to know that this form is reproduced by seed—⁵ no doubt now that D^r. Bonavia’s attention is called to the matter he will be on the look out for further deviations and by selection or as Mr Disraeli would put it “educating” the plants,⁶ he may succeed in deepening the cup of the thalamus (calyx tube) and so in time make the Rosaceous appearance even more striking.

Believe me, my dear Sir | faithfully y^rs | Maxwell. T. Masters.

C. Darwin Esq

P.S. Did you see Karl Koch’s paper on origin of Fruit Trees in Gard. Chron of Sept^r. 5.⁷ It will interest you I think