Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   [8 October 1846]

[Down]

Thursday

My dear Hooker

I do not know whether you will get this; but if you do, it is to beg you, if you have & if you can perfectly spare it, to bring any good work on the Corallinas or Nulliporas of Lam:—1 As they are undoubted plants,2 perhaps you may have something. I am going to write a paper on their propagation.—3 You are a real good man for coming

C. D.

Forbes is obliged to be off for Wales—

I have not heard from Falconer.—

A cousin of ours, Mr Allen,4 a very tall young man of the Colonial Office will probably meet the Phaeton at Sydenham—

1
Lamarck 1815–22. There is a copy in the Darwin Library–CUL. The calcareous secretions of corallines and nullipores form part of many coral reef structures, and CD discusses them in Coral reefs, pp. 9–10, 24–5, 85–6.
2
Coral reefs, p. 9. Lamarck had classed them as animals (Lamarck 1815–22, 2: 199–200, 325–6).
3
No such paper has been found. CD had been interested in the propagation of corallines since the Beagle voyage (Correspondence vol. 1, letters to J. S. Henslow, 11 April 1833 and 24 July – 7 November 1834). See Sloan 1985.
4
Probably John Hensleigh Allen, see Emma Darwin (1915) 2: 100.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 to bring] interl
1.2 good] interl
5.1 Mr] over ‘a’
5.1 a very tall young man] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1007,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1007