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To [John Colby]   2 March [1877]1

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

March 2d

Dear Sir

I am obliged to you for having taken the trouble to write me.— I can by mean explain your case, but cannot suppose the pistil behaved as in your description, except by mere accident.—2

I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The addressee and the year are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from John Colby, 27 February 1877 (Correspondence vol. 25).
2
Colby had sent CD an description and diagram of two flowers of a ‘species of blue bell’ (probably Campanula) where the pistil of one flower had grown into an adjoining flower (Correspondence vol. 25, letter from John Colby, 27 February 1877).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10873F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10873F