Ɛpsilon

To T. M. Story-Maskelyne   27 August [1875–81]1

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

Aug. 27th

Dear Mrs. Maskelyne

I will forward your kind message to my daughter2 who is in N. Wales.—

Many years ago I was familiar with the plant in question, as it grew in my Father’s garden, & I have seen it studded with dead flies.—3 I have never had time to investigate the case, but believe that the slaughter of so many wretched flies is of not the least use to the plant; but that it requires for its fertilisation the visits of small Hymenoptera, which are not caught, as their proboscides are not enlarged at the end.—4

I beg leave to remain | Yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The year range is established by the headed notepaper, which is of a sort that CD used from November 1874; he died in April 1882.
2
Elizabeth Darwin or Henrietta Emma Litchfield. Story-Maskelyne’s message has not been found.
3
Robert Waring Darwin (1766–1848) lived in Shrewsbury. The plant was Apocynum androsaemifolium (fly-trap dogbane); see also Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Asa Gray, 26 November [1860], and Campbell 2012.
4
Hymenoptera: the order of bees, wasps, and ants. Many Diptera (true flies) have probosces with paired labella at the tip.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10136F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10136F