Thanks for photograph.
Thanks for photograph.
Thanks for suggestion to try effect of dry heat on pollen and for other new information on pollen. Will begin new experiments soon, hoping to cure hay-fever.
Thanks JLGK for photos of natives of Queensland.
Asks if he can observe whether worms throw up castings in wet weather.
Believes some flowers fail to produce seed because of the access of too great a quantity of pollen. Asks for CD’s opinion and references.
Sends his paper on Ophrys insectifera, translated into German by H. G. Reichenbach [Abh. Kais. Leopold.-Carol. Dtsch. Akad. Naturforsch. 33 (1870) no. 3], which shows the intermediates between O. aranifera and O. apifera. He has since gathered information on variation in Ophrys.
Seeks the assistance of a professional chemist in securing a qualitative analysis of the fluid secreted by the glands of Drosera which have the power of dissolving animal matter out of the bodies of insects. [See 8979.]
HE’s facts about the Mexican ant [Myrmecocystus mexicanus] are "most wonderful & interesting".
Sends sodium carbonate for Drosera experiments. Will try to determine what the solvent is.
Thanks for the three essays: although they are beyond his scope, they seem to him very interesting.
Sends a bottle containing fish which Lord Arthur Russell had promised to send.
Thanks EF for his offer of assistance. Could the viscid secretions [in glands of Drosera] contain pepsin? Will the sodium carbonate render the testing of organic matter difficult? [See 8979.] Will send the fluid in a fortnight.
Is going to Switzerland, so analysis of Drosera washings will be delayed. Agrees with CD that solvent is probably pepsin.
Comments on ability of recipient to move his scalp.
Agrees to delay sending the fluid [from the glands of Drosera] until early October. Will try suggestion about pepsin. [See 8981.]
Asks CD to meet with Dr Wild to discuss the Westminster Review, which CD has supported.
Quotes from Alexander Kennedy on Maori observations on competition between native New Zealand birds and introduced bees for nectar of tree blossoms.
He will repeat the experiments in which CD found that formic acid vapour killed seeds [see 8866]. John Lindley describes effects of other acids on germination.
He has tabulated the large amount of variation in English Ophrys apifera.
Sends a letter from J. D. Hague confirming his earlier observation [see 8788] of frightened behaviour of ants when they come upon dead ants. CD had asked for confirmation because J. T. Moggridge had suggested that the ants’ behaviour was alarm at the scent of the observer’s fingers.
CD has clarified the way to conduct the formic acid experiment.
Thanks for Études sur la coeur et la circulation centrale dans la série des vertébrés (Studies on the heart and the central circulation in the vertebrate series; Sabatier 1873).
Describes his recent work on Drosera digestion of organic materials, e.g., albumen and gelatin. Edward Frankland has given CD a rough test for pepsin. Some plant extracts cause as much inflection as meat. Has found some reversible inflection with heat and perhaps some heat rigor. Has measured the extreme sensitivity of Drosera with very dilute solution of ammonium phosphate.