CD cannot come to London to sit for photograph. Sends one taken by son [Leonard], which family considers the best likeness. CD would be glad to give a sitting at Down.
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CD cannot come to London to sit for photograph. Sends one taken by son [Leonard], which family considers the best likeness. CD would be glad to give a sitting at Down.
Notes that Mr[s] Barber’s communication [forwarded by CD] will be published because of more striking than usual facts ["Notes on … larva and pupa of Papilio nireus", Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. (1874): 519–21].
Encloses Thomas Belt’s address.
Thanks JDH for extract on Hedychium pollination; it shows CD’s prior interpretation was incorrect.
An account of his observations on Aldrovanda and Utricularia.
Sends CD his memoir on Aldrovanda [Beitr. Biol. Pflanz. 1 (1875) Heft 3: 71–92] in advance of publication [see Insectivorous plants, pp. 321 et seq., 395–6].
Thanks JC-B for copy of Medical Reports of the West Riding Lunatic Asylum.
JDH asks Thiselton-Dyer if the proof of his 'address' has been sent to the publisher, Griffith. JDH describes his present location, Alderley Grange in Wotton under Edge, as 'a lovely place'. Whilst there he is working on the Royal Society address & the 'Primer' [refers to the series of 'Science Primer' books published by Macmillan, for which Hooker wrote the volume entitled BOTANY (1876)]. The following week JDH will go to Bewdley, then to stay with [George] Maw at Broseley, Shropshire, before returning to Kew. In a post script JDH adds that he has read & enjoyed CRUISE ON WHEELS [by Charles Allston Collis] & is now reading [George Eliot's] SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE, the best thing he has read in years, either fact or fiction. He specifically mentions the story JANET'S REPENTANCE.
Has been testing the digestive powers of Drosera; wants to know whether a group of substances that elicit similar responses are related.
Sends information CD requested on phosphate of ammonia and on nitrogenous substances produced during putrefaction of animal matter.
Asks JDH for leaves of Byblis and Roridula to examine, and D. Oliver for an anomalous species of Utricularia.
Doubts whether sudden and great variations often occur.
Comments on colours of flowers.
Acknowledges the information about the phosphate and about putrefaction. Regrets that there is no knowledge of the conjectured substance. [See 9671.]
Oliver will attend to his letter.
Tells of discovery and rediscovery of Aldrovanda.
Asks what CD thinks of "old Pritchard’s discourse" [C. Pritchard, Natural science and natural religion (1874)]. Does not affect evolution at all. It does affect the rather unprofitable doctrine of materialism.
His plans for the Royal Society Presidential Address.
Suggests an explanation for difference in excitability of Drosera leaves to meat and albumen on the one hand and, on the other, fibrin, areolar tissue, gelatin, and fibrous basis of bone.
Announces arrival of the Merope [Leonard Darwin’s ship] at Canterbury, New Zealand.
CD responds [to 9667] with description of his own effort to study Aldrovanda and his observations on the structure of Dionaea.
His admiration for FJC’s earlier studies of the Venus’s fly-trap.
He urges FJC to proceed promptly with publication of his memoir on Aldrovanda [Beiträge zur Biologie der Pflanzen 1, Heft 3 (1875): 71–92].
Parish and family news.
Francis Darwin’s marriage; Francis serves as CD’s assistant.
Sends specimens of Byblis, Roridula, and Utricularia for CD’s examination.
Discusses the powers of digestion of Drosera and why certain substances produce less excitement in the plant than others.
Thanks WHMC and the Astronomer Royal for informing him of the safe arrival of the Merope [Leonard Darwin’s ship] at New Zealand. [See 9677.]
Thanks him for specimens.