Ɛpsilon

From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   12 July 1875

10 Gloucester Road | Kew

July 12, 1875

My dear Mr Darwin

Would you allow Lankester and myself to come next Sunday—the 18th. That is rather sooner than I originally suggested and if it should not be convenient to you to have us then perhaps we might come on the Sunday following1

I have very little of any consequence to send you for the “Variation”. I have checked some of the references and a few I can correct. The most important thing is the crossing of Chamærops humilis by the Date (i. p. 399). This Dr Hooker tells me Naudin has given up.2 We have some of the presumed hybrids at Kew. They are perfectly normal Chamærops.

Lankester is very sensible of your kindness in allowing us to visit you together   I had already explained to him—and indeed he knows well—that you are not able to converse very much

Believe me | Yours very truly | W. T. Thiselton Dyer

1
See letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 7 July 1875. Thiselton-Dyer and Edwin Ray Lankester visited Down on 18 July 1875 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
2
In Variation 1: 399, CD had reported a case of Chamaerops humilis (the European or dwarf fan palm) fertilised with pollen from the date palm, resulting in fruit intermediate in size and shape between the two parent forms; the hybridised seed also produced plants intermediate in character. The case had been described by Charles Victor Naudin in a letter to Joseph Dalton Hooker (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 March [1867] and n. 4). This passage was removed in Variation 2d ed.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10061,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10061