From:
Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
15 July [1875]
Source of text:
DAR 178: 14
Summary:
Has read Insectivorous plants and is to review it for the Spectator.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Showing 21–40 of 64 items
Has read Insectivorous plants and is to review it for the Spectator.
Informs RLT of J. D. Hooker’s work on Nepenthes ["Nepenthaceae, Cytinaceae", in Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis by A. P. de Candolle (1873), 17: 90–116].
Has asked JDH to try secretions of pitchers that had caught no insects.
Sends a note on the ferment of the Nepenthes secretion, which he asks CD to forward to Nature if he thinks it worth while [see "Insectivorous plants", Nature 12 (1875): 251–2].
CD returns MS of a paper by RLT. "If you have succeeded in separating the ferment, the fact is manifestly important." Asks whether RLT tested the digestive ability of fluid from pitchers without animal matter. This would be necessary to prove that there was ferment in the fluid. CD is glad to hear about the [passage?] for guiding insects; he had guessed this to be the case.
Insectivorous plants: observations on the digestive fluid of Nepenthes.
Reproduction of plant by "parthenogenesis".
Thanks him for his kind review of Insectivorous plants in the Spectator. Disputes Tait’s report of a Nepenthes that trapped a fly but did not digest it.
Digestive fluid in insectivorous plants. RLT’s work on tails.
RLT speculates on the "moral nature" of parental protection shown by humans and traces it back to its first occurrence in the animal world.
CD gives a few instances of various animals (starfish, earwigs, spiders) that take charge of their young.
Wishes CD to present RLT’s paper on insectivorous plants to the Royal Society.
Will be happy to present RLT’s paper on Nepenthes to Royal Society.
Thanks CD for consenting to present his paper.
Composition of "Droserin" [see 10015].
Has CD ever come across Dischidia rafflesiana?
Has extracted a highly deliquescent substance from digestive secretion of insectivorous plants.
His paper [for Royal Society] is completed; would CD like to read it?
RLT’s paper will be sent to CD. Will CD notify him of any serious defects?
RLT’s paper on insectivorous plants is being copied.
Because CD has been unwell, he has not read RLT’s paper carefully, but it seems an important contribution to science. Hopes RLT’s chemical observations will be confirmed. It seems a great anomaly that two substances with an acid should be requisite for digestion.
RLT’s insectivorous plants paper.
The success of a recent lecture.