From J. V. Carus   13 June 1877

Leipzig

June 13th | 1877

My dear Sir,

I beg your pardon for drawing again your attention to what I think will turn out to be a misprint.

In the 2 ed. of the Orchid-book, p. 58, l. 7 from bottom it is stated, that there is a close analogy between “a sexual propagation” and long-continued self-fertilization. I should think you have written asexual propagation and not ‘a sexual.’1

As the publisher announces already your book ‘on different forms of flowers’ you will perhaps be able to tell me, how large it will be about, and when it will be out.2 Herr Koch wishes very much to complete the botanical volume, which is now in print.3 You would oblige me greatly, if you would kindly tell me, how it stands.

I have come back from Naples, where I have profited immensely both scientifically and bodily.4 I regret only that I could not stay longer.

I hope your health is fairly well.

Believe me | My dear Sir, | Yours ever sincerely | J. Victor Carus

1
Carus was translating Orchids 2d ed. into German (Carus trans. 1877c). The mistake was corrected in Orchids 2d ed. rev. (1882).
2
Forms of flowers was published in July 1877 (Freeman 1977); it was 352 pages long, not including preliminaries.
3
Eduard Koch was head of the German firm E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, which was publishing a collected edition of CD’s works (Carus trans. 1875–87). Carus’s translation of Forms of flowers (Carus trans. 1877e) was published in volume 9 of this series, together with his translations of Climbing plants 2d ed. and Orchids 2d ed. (Carus trans. 1876, 1877c).
4
Carus spent three months at the Zoological Station in Naples (see letter from J. V. Carus, 20 January 1877 and n. 11).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.3 asexual] underl and double scored red crayon

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10997,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10997