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To Thomas Brittain   1 December 1876

The Downs, Beckenham (Kent).1

December 1, 1876.

Dear sir,—

I am much obliged to you for calling my attention to the very curious case of the Apocynum.2 I am quite unable to understand the meaning of this trap-like arrangement. I do not believe that it is of any benefit to the plant, and certainly it is none to the unfortunate insects. I have at present a plant in my hot-house, and if it flowers I shall attempt to solve the problem. I may mention that a well-known naturalist in Brazil, Fritz Müller, has been hitherto baffled in trying to understand this plant.—3

Dear sir, yours faithfully, | Ch. Darwin.

1
An error was evidently made in copying CD’s address.
2
See letter from Thomas Brittain, 30 November 1876. Apocynum androsaemifolium (fly-trap dogbane) traps small flies and moths by their tongues in the flower’s V-shaped nectaries. Their proper pollinators, long-tongued butterflies, are able to avoid the trap.
3
CD had asked Müller to observe Apocynum flowers catching insects by their probosces in his letter of [9 and] 15 April [1866] (Correspondence vol. 14).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10695,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10695