Ɛpsilon

From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   [21 October 1877]1

better to accept Mr Spottiswoode’s proposal to come in the afternoon2

Sir Joseph arrived on Friday looking extremely well.3 Harriet and I start tomorrow morning4   I wish we were going south instead of north. Sir Joseph mentioned to me an interesting fact which the American botanists communicated to him. The leaves of Pinus Nordmanniana are spread horizontally in the morning and rise in the day.5 As the under surfaces of the leaves are white—the facies of the tree gets altered. This is an interesting fact in a group so distinct as Gymnosperms   Some coniferæ are dicotyledonous

incomplete

CD annotations

1.1 better … north. 2.2] crossed ink
2.2 Sir Joseph mentioned] opening square bracket ink
2.3 The … day 2.5] ‘Sleep’ added red crayon
1
The date is established by the reference to Thiselton-Dyer’s departure ‘tomorrow morning’ (see n. 4, below).
2
The purpose of William Spottiswoode’s visit is not known; he was vice-president of the Royal Society of London and lived in Combe Bank, Sundridge, Kent, about four miles from Down.
3
Joseph Dalton Hooker had been away on a three-month botanical trip in America (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 2: 204–17). He arrived back on 19 October, the Friday prior to Thiselton-Dyer’s departure (see n. 4, below).
4
Thiselton-Dyer had married Harriet Anne Hooker on 23 June 1877; they had cut short their honeymoon because of J. D. Hooker’s departure for America. On 22 October, they departed for the remainder of their honeymoon (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 19 October 1877 and n. 5).
5
The movement of the leaves of the fir tree Pinus nordmanniana (a synonym of Abies nordmanniana subsp. nordmanniana) was later mentioned by CD in Movement in plants, p. 389. CD cited an article by Joannes Chatin stating that the leaves were horizontal during the day and vertical at night (Chatin 1876, p. 171).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11161,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11161