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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Daniel Oliver   18 December 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Dec 18th 74

My dear Prof: Oliver

I have four favours to ask, & these I really believe will be the last. Firstly:— in your note in which you kindly gave me information about the ranges of Byblis, you speak of B. gigantea. Now I copied (perhaps by mistake) the name B. grandiflora from the specimens sent from Kew.1 Which name is right?

Secondly:— Dr Hooker, when here, said he would ask you whether there were dried specimens at Kew of Genlisea ornata of Martius, which is evidently closely allied to Utricularia.2 Warming has described little cavities in the linear leaves forming bladders, & I should very much like to see if the have captured prey.3 I do not know whether it is a water or land plant.

Thirdly: is there any more recent list of the species of Drosera than that published by Steudel in the Nomenclator 1841, as I should like to know how many species exist; though it is of no great importance & would not be worth causing any trouble—4

Lastly & especially: have you any dried specimens of Utricularia montana collected from their native haunts, as I particularly wish to see what sort of animals are caught in the bladders on the rhizomes.5 I found two or three minute creatures in the bladders of hothouse plants; but they would probably catch more & other prey by rhizomes penetrating moss, rotten bark, &c

Forgive me for being so troublesome & believe me yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

See Correspondence vol. 22, letter from Daniel Oliver, 20 October 1874. Oliver had mentioned two species of rainbow plant, Byblis liniflora and B. gigantea. CD mentioned only the latter species in Insectivorous plants, pp. 343–4.
Genlisea ornata (a synonym of G. aurea) was described by Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius in Flora Brasiliensis (Martius ed. 1840–1906, 10: 252). Utricularia is the genus of bladderwort; like Genlisia (corkscrew plants), it belongs to the family Lentibulariaceae.
Eugenius Warming’s description of the cavities is in his paper ‘Bidrag til Kundskaben om Lentibulariaceæ’ (Contribution to the knowledge of Lentibulariaceæ; Warming 1874, pp. 34–5). The linear leaves or tube-leaves are spirally coiled subterranean leaves that lack chlorophyll and resemble roots; these tubes divide into two branches with a bulb-like cavity formed at the point of division.
Ernst Gottlieb Steudel’s Nomenclator botanicus (Steudel 1841) listed all known species of plants up to the time of publication (for species of Drosera (sundew), see ibid., p. 531).
Utricularia montana is a synonym of U. alpina, a tropical epiphytic species found in alpine regions of northern South America, notable for its large orchid-like flowers.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.

Martius, Karl Friedrich Philipp von, ed. 1840–1906. Flora Brasiliensis, enumeratio plantarum in Brasilia hactenus detectarum quas suis aliorumque botanicorum studiis descriptas et methodo naturali digestas partim icone illustratas. 15 vols. Leipzig: R. Oldenbourg.

Steudel, Ernst Gottlieb. 1841. Nomenclator botanicus: seu: synonymia plantarum universalis, enumerans ordine alphabetico nomina atque synonyma, tum generica tum specifica, et a Linnaeo et a recentioribus de re botanica scriptoribus plantis phanerogamis imposita. 2d edition. 2 parts. Stuttgart and Tübingen: J. G. Cotta.

Warming, Eugenius. 1874. Bidrag til Kundskaben om Lentibulariaceæ. I. Genlisea ornata Mart. (Hertil tab. V og VI). II. Spiringen af Fröene hos Utricularia vulgaris. (Hertil tab. VII). Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den naturhistoriske Forening i Kjöbenhavn (1874, Nr. 3–7): 33–58. (Resumé in French, pp. 8–15.)

Summary

Asks four favours: sort out confusion about the name Byblis gigantea or grandiflora; can he see dried specimens of Genlisea ornata; is there a more recent list of Drosera spp. than Steudel 1841; are there at Kew any dried specimens of Utricularia montana collected from the plant’s native haunts.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9763F
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Daniel Oliver
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Newcastle University Special Collections (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive GB186 SW/6/4)
Physical description
4pp LS(A)

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9763F,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9763F.xml

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