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From Alfred Martinelli   26 June 1877

106 Albany St. | Regent’s Park | N.W.

26th. June 1877

Sir,

I take the liberty of submitting to you the following circumstance which has come under my notice:

Early last year I planted several beans which flowered in due course, but, owing I think to the poorness of the soil, bore no seeds. As annuals I expected they would have died; to my surprise, however, each formed a tuber at its root; and they have now grown again,—one sending up four shoots.1

The fact that no one to whom I have mentioned this circumstanc⁠⟨⁠e⁠⟩⁠ has been acquainted with it will, I trust, be sufficient excuse for my troubling you.

I have the honour to be, Sir | Your’s faithfully | Alfred Martinelli

1
Martinelli later described runner beans (Phaseolus multiflorus) that had failed to fruit, but whose roots had formed tubers. He suggested that the nutritive material for fruiting had been stored as tubers enabling the plant to regrow in spring. (Martinelli 1879.)

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11018,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11018