Ɛpsilon

To J. J. Weir   8 July [1875]1

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

July 8th

My dear Sir

I thank you cordially. The case interests me in a higher degree than anything which I have heard for a very long time.—2 Is it your Brother Harrison W. whom I know? I shd. like to hear where the garden is.3

There is one other very important point which I am most anxious to hear, viz the nature of the leaves at the base of the yellow racemes, for leaves are always there produced with the yellow Laburnums, & I suppose so in the case of C. purpureus.4

As the tree has produced yellow racemes several times, do you think you could ask your brother to cut off & send me by Post in a box a small branch of the purple stock with the pods or leaves of the yellow sport? This wd. be an immense favour, for then I would cut the point of junction longitudinally & examine slice under the microscope to be able to state no trace of bud of yellow kind having been inserted.— I do not suspect anything of the kind, but it is sure to be said that your Brother’s gardener either by accident or fraud inserted a bud. Under this point of view it wd be very good to gather from your Brother how many times the yellow sport has appeared. The case appears to me so very important as to be worth any trouble.

Very many thanks for all assistance so kindly given. Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

I will of course send copy of new Edit. of Var. under Dom: when published in autumn.—5

P.S As you say on account of sports I fear to trust Cratægus.6

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. J. Weir, 7 July 1875.
3
Harrison William Weir’s garden was at Weirleigh, Brenchley, Kent (letter from J. J. Weir, 9 July 1875).
4
Weir had described specimens of Cytisus alpinus (now Laburnum alpinum, Scotch laburnum) that, when grafted with C. purpureus (a synonym of Chamaecytisus purpureus, purple broom), produced branches with either yellow or purple flowers (see letter to J. J. Weir, 5 July 1875 and n. 2).
5
Variation 2d ed. was published in the second half of February 1876 (Publishers’ circular, 1 March 1875, p. 168); however, it carried an 1875 publication date.
6
See letter from J. J. Weir, 7 July 1875 and n. 3. Crataegus: hawthorn.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
3.1 As] after del ‘If’
3.2 cut] after del ‘cut’
3.4 of junction] interl
3.4 slice] interl
3.5 of … kind] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10051,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10051