To W. H. Leggett   22 January 1877

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

Jan 22. 1877

Dear Sir,

I read some time ago a short article by you in the Bull: Bot: Club on Pontederia, in which you speak of making further observations.1 I should esteem it a great favour if you would inform me of the result.

From Fritz Müller’s paper & from an examination of the dried flowers which he sent me, & of which I measured the pollen grains, I can hardly doubt that F. Müllers two species are trimorphic like Lythrum salicaria &c.2 You seem inclined to attribute the different lengths of the pistil to complete or incomplete growth, but as Müller closely examined a multitude of flowers, I cannot believe that so good an observer could have overlooked this cause of difference.3

Hoping that you will excuse the liberty which I take in writing to you,

I remain, dear Sir, | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
Leggett described Pontederia cordata (pickerel weed) in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (Leggett 1875). CD’s letter evidently crossed in the post with the letter from W. H. Leggett, 15 January 1877, in which Leggett informed CD that he had not been able to observe the plant again.
2
Müller had discussed trimorphism in Pontederia crassipes (a synonym of Eichhornia crassipes, common water hyacinth) in ‘Ueber den Trimorphismus der Pontederien’ (On the trimorphism of Pontederia; Fritz Müller 1871). He later identified other trimorphic species (see letter from Fritz Müller, 25 March 1877). In Forms of flowers, pp. 183–7, CD described flowers of some species of Pontederia as heterostyled trimorphic based on observations made by Müller of three species in Brazil.
3
Leggett made further observations and confirmed tristyly in Pontederia cordata in a later article (Leggett 1877). In the preface to Forms of flowers 2d ed., p. viii, CD added a reference to Leggett 1877. See also letter to W. H. Leggett, 19 August 1877.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10808,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10808