Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill.

I thought that I had reported on the Utricularia & I certainly ought to have done so.¹ The large swellings on the roots or rhizomes certainly serve to store up water, & it is wonderful how long the plant can exist in quite dry earth, these swellings or tubers gradually yielding up their water. But the minute bladders have interested me most, I have found in four of them on your plant minute decayed animals; And in the dried bladders of plants from their native country a much larger number of captured creatures commonly mites—² The bladders are lined with quadrified processes consisting of most delicate membrane; these are empty & transparent in the bladders which have caught nothing, but are filled with granular spontaneously moving protoplasm in those which have lain for some time in contact with decayed animal matter.— Therefore I feel sure that the plant is adapted for catching live animals, and feeds on their remains when decayed.—

I am much obliged to you for telling me the very curious anecdote about the love birds.

When in London during the winter I hope that I may be so fortunate as to have the honour of seeing your Ladyship.

I beg Leave to remain | Yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin.

My son who has written this from my dictation is pleased that you were interested by his article.³