To Lawson Tait   17 [July 1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

J. 17th

My dear Sir

I thank you for your extremely kind note.—2 I did not answer, as you told me I might not, your former notes to Abinger, as I was quite worn out.—3 I wish I cd. help you about D. binata, but I hardly know Lady D. Nevill well enough to borrow plants for a third party.—4

You are aware that Dr Hooker has worked hard at Nepenthes & will soon publish: I told him to try the secretion of pitchers which had caught no insects, & it cd. not digest.5 Therefore to get the ferment, it wd be necessary to give some nitrogenous compound, & wd. not this make the separation of the ferment very difficult?—

In Haste | yours sincerely | Ch Darwin

photocopy

1
The year and month are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Lawson Tait, 15 July [1875].
3
CD stayed at Abinger Hall, Surrey, the home of Thomas Henry Farrer, from 3 June to 6 July 1875 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). Tait had written six letters to CD during his stay.
4
Tait was trying to obtain specimens of Drosera binata, the forked-leaf sundew (see letter from Lawson Tait, 15 July [1875]). CD had received the plant from Dorothy Fanny Nevill (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter to D. F. Nevill, 7 September 1874).
5
CD had advised Joseph Dalton Hooker on his research on the digestive properties of the tropical pitcher-plant, Nepenthes (Correspondence vol. 21, letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 November [1873]). For Tait’s interest in the plant, see the letter from Lawson Tait, 15 July [1875] and n 5.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10023,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10023