To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   22 October 1875

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Oct 22 1875

My dear Dyer

As you seem interested about the Paritium, I have hunted for & found Dr King’s M.S., which need not be returned.1 Please to thank Hooker for his note; why I called the plant Cistus instead of Hibiscus, I cannot conceive, it was like my writing to you about Marantaceæ instead of Melastomaceæ.2

As it appears from your former note. that Imant: cyrtanthiflorum is a hybrid, can you let me have Clivia nobilis, as this wd. be much better for me for the cross.3 I could return all these bulbs if required, after they have flowered & I have crossed them.

That is an extraordinary fact which you tell me about the leaves of insular plants.4 With many thanks | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
See letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 October [1875] and n. 5, and letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 20 October 1875 and n. 3. George King’s manuscript was read in December 1875 and published in the Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany) in May 1876 (King 1875). Paritium was a subgenus of Hibiscus; the species is now called Talipariti hastatum.
3
See letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [16–22 October 1875] and n. 2. Imantophyllum cyrtanthiflorum is now known as Clivia × cyrtanthiflora.
4
See letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 20 October 1875. Thiselton-Dyer had commented on the tendency of island flora to produce heteromorphic leaves.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10210,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10210