My dear Sir

I have been ill & must be very brief.—² Your letter amused me & my family greatly, & I read with much interest your letters to the newspaper.³

Many thanks for the fact about the globular worm-castings; but no bottle has yet reached me.⁴ I wish you heartily all success. Your letter is so fresh & spirited, you ought to write a book, tinctured with Nat. Hist., about the Colony.⁵

Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

I send on next page my autograph⁶

P.S. Do you know any Botanist who observes living plants. I much want to know whether the species of Eucalyptus are “dichogamous,” i.e. whether in the same flower the male & female organs are mature at the same time or day.— If Bees visit flowers after the pollen is quite or almost quite shed, this w^d. almost show that the flowers are dichogamo⁠⟨⁠us⁠⟩⁠— I am tired & cannot write.—

C.D.