Ɛpsilon

To Lawson Tait   29 April [1876]1

London

Ap. 29th

My dear Sir

Prof. Dyer says it wd. take much time to look up all the references about Nepenthes, but he says you will find a list of references in DeCandolles Prodromus Vol. XVII. p. 91; & further that at the Linn. Soc. you wd. be able to see much of the works referred to. Korthals’ “book is a large & costly one” & D. does not know when it cd. be consulted.2

With respect to your candidature for R. Socy, I of course know nothing, but I believe the Council judge as well as they can (& they take infinite pains) for what he has actually published, but are influenced somewhat by the estimation in which he was held, & considerably by the length of time during which he has been a candidate.3

Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

photocopy

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Lawson Tait, 25 April [1876].
2
See letter from Lawson Tait, 25 April [1876]. CD had asked William Turner Thiselton-Dyer to supply details of the references mentioned by Joseph Dalton Hooker on reading Tait’s paper on Nepenthes (the genus of tropical pitcher-plants); see letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 26 April [1876]. Hooker had written the section on Nepenthes for Augustin Pyramus and Alphonse de Candolle’s Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis (A. P. de Candolle and Candolle 1824–73, 17: 90–105); he provided an extensive list of references. The bylaws of the Linnean Society allowed only fellows and members to consult books in the library (Charter and bye-laws of the Linnean Society of London), but Tait could probably have had access if he was introduced by a fellow. Pieter Willem Korthals’s ‘Over het geslacht Nepenthes’ (On the genus Nepenthes; Korthals 1839–44) was part of the larger Dutch work Verhandelingen over de natuurlijke geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen, door de Leden der Natuurkundige commissie in Indië en andere Schrijvers (Treatises on the natural history of the Dutch overseas territories, by the members of the science commission in India and other writers).
3
In 1875, Tait’s paper ‘Preliminary note on the anatomy of the umbilical cord’ (L. Tait 1876a) had been read at the Royal Society. Tait hoped to become a fellow but was never elected (Correspondence vol. 23, letter from Lawson Tait, 5 June [1875]; ODNB).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 London] above del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.’
1.4 “book] after del ‘is’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10484,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10484