Dear Sir,

I duly received your letter of the 17th, and would have acknowledged it sooner, had I not been hindered by engagements in town.¹ I shall have great pleasure in writing to a botanical friend in Oporto for seeds of the Araujia sericofera.² If you will only investigate the matter when you have leisure, my design in writing to you will be fully accomplished.

Since receiving your letter, I was discoursing about the Araujia to a friend who has lived in Portugal. I asked him whether he had ever actually witnessed the capture of an insect, and he replied that he had not, but that on one occasion he came very near it. He was approaching the plant, and, when quite close to it, he saw a hawk-moth flying before him in the same direction. By the time he had arrived at the spot, the insect was firmly caught by the trunk. It was making great efforts with its wings to escape, but without success. The capture was the work of a moment. He spontaneously compared the shape of the part by which the insect was caught (viz., the stigma) to the figure formed by the two large feathers in the tail of the lyre bird.³

I note with much interest the subject which you are now investigating, and am glad to find that what Knapp says of the Apocynum androsæmifolium is, (in part at least) confirmed by your own later observations.⁴

I shall write to you again when I have a reply from my botanical friend. In the mean time I remain, | Yours faithfully, | Edwin J. Johnston Jr.