Ɛpsilon

To Veitch & Sons   [before 11 August 1877]1

I   Ought the plants to be kept in a warm or cool greenhouse?2

Cold Greenhouse close to the glass, on a shelf exposed to the light

II   Ought they to be repotted soon in larger pots?

No

III   Ought the plants to stand in saucers of water?

No

plunged in Sphagnum Moss

I should be grateful for any special instructions.

Keep the roots moist

C. Darwin

LS

1
The correspondent is established from a note on the back of the letter made by Francis Darwin, which reads, ‘Veitch? | Dionaea’. The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 11 August 1877.
2
CD received thirty plants of Dionaea muscipula (Venus fly trap) from Veitch on 11 August 1877 (see letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 11 August 1877). CD had evidently included this set of questions about the care of the plants with his order, and it was returned with the answers written in the spaces CD left after each query (reproduced here indented, on a new line).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10749,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10749