Summary

Thanks JL for a flower of Bolbophyllum, a genus that puzzles him.

Recent work has convinced him a number of orchids are male. Points out that JL [in The vegetable kingdom (1846), pp. 177–8] "accidentally misquoted" R. H. Schomburgk on this point.

Summary

Sends thanks for an informative letter;

would be grateful for any orchids; names some he would particularly like.

Summary

CD sends thanks for many valuable dried specimens [of orchids]. Has been promised Catasetum and some Dendrobium by Mr Rucker; has written also to Lady Dorothy [Nevill].

Summary

CD is sending an orchid flower; asks JL to identify it.

Also asks if JL can spare a dried flower of another orchid (name forgotten) [which CD describes] so that he can try to trace its ducts or spiral vessels.

Summary

Thanks JL for information about Acropera luteola.

Also thanks for the Gongora; cannot avoid the impression it is male.

Summary

Lady Dorothy [Nevill] has written very obligingly and sent a lot of orchids.

Summary

Delayed thanking JL for two notes until he heard from Hooker about Acropera luteola; had no idea A. luteola was not a well-known name.

Cites his reasons for identifying A. loddigesii as male; hopes for a Gongora flower from Hooker which, JL suggested, may be the female.

Summary

Thanks JL for identifying Catasetum saccatum.

Writes of his interest ("more than almost anything in my life") in orchids, but fears he is rash to publish.

Summary

Requests orchid specimens from Arethuseae division for his investigation of the many contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insect agency.

Asks whether Charles Morren has published on the fertilisation of orchids by insect agency.

Summary

Has found function of rostellum: modified stigma guarantees attachment of pollinia.

Summary

JDH’s letter on grounds of generalisation in plant morphology.

Faunal distribution and the glacial period.

Orchid homologies.

Summary

On orchids supplied by Kew; homologies of pollen and rostellum.

Summary

Seeks information on heating hothouses night and day.

Summary

Requests that DO examine enclosed microscope slides of Acropera ovules, to confirm CD’s opinion that females are non-functional.

Can DO comment on disagreement between Robert Brown and John Lindley over the number of Acropera carpels?

O. Heer’s Atlantis theory vs CD’s hypothesis of a migration north during warm periods.

Summary

Trusts DO’s opinion on Acropera ovules.

Summary

Lindley suggests Gongora may be female Acropera.

CD’s orchid book nearly ready for press.

Discovers trimorphism in Lythrum is in H. Lecoq [Études sur la géographie botanique de l’Europe (1854–8)].

Summary

JDH’s work on Gnetum: a living fossil.

Orchid anatomy.

Encloses lists of orchids and other specimens he would be interested in seeing.

Summary

Acropera anatomy puzzling. Malaxis anatomy deciphered.

Summary

Orchid anatomy. Requests Lindley’s work on orchids [The genera and species of orchidaceous plants (1830–40)].

Summary

CD’s orchid paper is to become orchid book [Orchids].

Primula paper is done [Collected papers 2: 45–63].