Ɛpsilon

From Daniel Oliver   12 July 1877

Kew

12 July, | 1877

My dear Mr Darwin

You are really the most generous man in the world! Dyer has handed me a copy of your “Forms of Flowers” inscribed from the author.1 Thank you very much. But I do not deserve this consideration one bit.

Prof. Alex. Dickson of Glasgow has been making observations in his elaborate way on the singular epidermal cells lining the pitcher of Cephalotus. He wants to know if any of those “confounded Germans” (as he disrespectfully calls them) have anticipated him. I am not aware that anybody has described histologl. details of Cephalotus. May I ask if you happen to have any such reference you wd. very kindly let him—or me for him—have it?2

Very sincerely yours | D. Oliver

1
Oliver’s name and William Turner Thiselton-Dyer’s appear on CD’s presentation list for Forms of flowers (see Appendix IV).
2
CD’s reply has not been found. Alexander Dickson read a paper on Cephalotus follicularis at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in August 1877; an abstract was published in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (Dickson 1878). Cephalotus follicularis is the Australian pitcher-plant.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11048,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11048