Ɛpsilon

To Edward Frankland   3 May 1876

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

My 3/76

My dear Dr Frankland

My son dispatched the two samples of earth yesterday.1 It is a most fortunate circumstance for us that we did not begin planting the seeds until hearing your judgement on the subject. It is an immense advantage to us to have the earth analysed: in fact our whole course of experiment would have been otherwise labour thrown away.2 From what you said, our chief hope now lies in the clayey sand dug up from a depth and on which plants will not naturally grow.

We are very anxious to hear the result, & with many thanks remain | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

2
CD and Francis were investigating variation between successive generations of both cross- and self-fertilised plants, and wanted to carry out their experiments using soil that was free of nutrients (see letter from Francis Darwin, [1 May 1876] and n. 2).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10495A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10495A