Ɛpsilon

To J. V. Carus   16 September [1877]1

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

Sept. 16th

My dear Sir

Very many thanks for the errata.2 That at p. 205 of “shortest” instead of “mid-length” is a dreadful one.

Originally I wrote “longer” & “shorter” stamens in each flower & afterwards changed to the 3 terms, of “shortest” “mid-length” & “longest”; & it is clear that I omitted to correct the heading of the table.—3

I cannot give actual measurements, though, as you say, it would have been far better: I was hurried & so was my son, & we thought relative size was alone of importance.4

I had intended (but it seems that I forgot) to send you a perfect copy, & will now write to Publisher to do so.— The book has been published a few weeks ago.—5

I am heartily glad that you are better.6 I can give a fairly good account of myself, & have been able to work pretty hard.—

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. V. Carus, 13 September 1877.
2
See letter from J. V. Carus, 13 September 1877. Carus had sent corrections to Forms of flowers, which he was translating into German.
3
See letter from J. V. Carus, 13 September 1877 and n. 2. Carus had queried the heading of the table that was published as ‘Illegitimate Plants raised from Short-styled Parents fertilised with pollen from own-form shortest stamens’ (Forms of flowers, p. 205).
4
In his letter of 13 September 1877, Carus had asked for the unit of calibration of the micrometer used to measure relative diameters of pollen-grains in Forms of flowers. The measurements were made by Francis Darwin (Forms of flowers, p. 186).
5
Forms of flowers was published by John Murray on 9 July 1877 (Freeman 1977). Carus’s name is on CD’s presentation list for the book, but is deleted; he had been sent proof-sheets (see Appendix IV, and letter to J. V. Carus, 17 June [1877]).
6
Carus suffered from bronchial problems (see Correspondence vol. 24, letter from J. V. Carus, 19 March 1876 and n. 4.)

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 “longer”] after del ‘of’
4.1 (but … forgot)] parentheses over commas
4.1 now] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11143,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11143