To Asa Gray   27 November 1876

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Nov 27. 76.

My dear Gray,

Many thanks for your pleasant letter, & for the correction of my stupid blunder.1 I hope that you will have received by this time a nearly complete set of sheets; but in case they should have failed, I send another set with the exception of the four or five last pages & title page which will come very soon.2 I shall be delighted to send you sheets in advance of the Orchid book, & have written for them today3

Only yesterday I discovered that I had overlooked one of your papers on Platanthera, from which I could have extracted two or three good facts, & this has vexed me. I find it very difficult to keep references distinct for various subjects.4

Ever yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

2
See letter to Asa Gray, 4 [November 1876]. CD was sending Gray proof-sheets of Cross and self fertilisation.
3
In his letter of 12 November 1876, Gray asked for proof-sheets of Orchids 2d ed. so that he could write a notice of it.
4
In ‘Fertilization of orchids’, p. 147, published in 1869, CD cited the American Journal of Science and Arts 34 (1862): 143, 259, 424, and 36 (1863): 292, for Gray’s comments on Platanthera; these were references to three separate papers: a two-part review of Orchids (A. Gray 1862a), ‘Enumeration of the plants of Dr Parry’s collection in the Rocky Mountains’ (A. Gray 1862c), and ‘Structure and fertilization of certain orchids’ (A. Gray 1863). In Orchids 2d ed., which incorporated ‘Fertilization of orchids’, he added in a list of works published since the first edition a reference to Gray 1862c. The other references to Gray on this list are from works already cited in ‘Fertilization of orchids’. Platanthera is the bog or fringed orchid.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10688,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10688