Ɛpsilon

From C. C. Babington   16 March 1877

5 Brookside | Cambridge

16 Mar. 1877

Dear Darwin,

I think that the flowers of Hottonia project from the stem nearly horizontally as represented in Eng. Bot. 364 (Syme 1128), perhaps slightly upwards.1

I am sorry that I cannot help you about Pulmonaria angustifolia as my supply of that plant is exceedingly small.2 I have never seen it growing myself. Will not Borrers Herb.3 at Kew help you in the matter, as I cannot.

I am alway rejoiced when I can help you.

Yours very truly | Charles C. Babington.

1
No letter from CD asking about the plants mentioned in this letter has been found. Hottonia palustris (water violet or featherfoil) is described and illustrated in English botany; or, coloured figures of British plants, with their essential characters, synonyms, and places of growth (J. E. Smith and Sowerby 1790–1814, 6: 364). It appeared in the third edition (Syme ed. 1863–92 7: pl. 1128, opposite p. 130). CD described H. palustris in Forms of flowers, pp. 50–4.
2
In 1863 and 1864, CD corresponded frequently with his son William Erasmus Darwin on the two forms of Pulmonaria angustifolia (narrow-leaved lungwort; see Correspondence vols. 11 and 12). CD described P. angustifolia in Forms of flowers, pp. 104–10.
3
Borrers Herb.: the herbarium at Kew had acquired the extensive collection of British plants of William Borrer on his death in 1862 (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10894,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10894