To J. D. Hooker   6 November [1877]1

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

Nov. 6th

My dear Hooker

Neptunia will be very valuable to me if seeds germinate & even more so if plants will grow.— I shall be very glad of seeds of 1 or 2 kinds of Cassia, & especially of Mimosa pudica & Desmodium gyrans.—2 Lastly have you seeds of any one species of Cycadeae?3 Good Heavens how grand it wd. be to observe cotyledons of Welwitschia, but this I know is impossible.4 Hearty thanks for all your help.

We have just had telegram that Litchfield has reached Bâle safely, & we expect him here with much anxiety on Thursday on a stretcher.—5 On Friday we expect Sara & Theodora Sedgwick & William, so our house will be full for some little time.— They are to be married on the 28th.—6

I am longing to see you, & we do hope that in latter part of month, you may be able together with Lady Hooker7 to come here for a Sunday. I want much to hear news of all your adventures,8 & I also want advice about our work on cotyledons &c.—

I hope you are beginning to see daylight through the accumulation of your work.

Ever yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to William Erasmus Darwin’s wedding (see n. 6, below).
2
On Cassia, Mimosa pudica, and Desmodium gyrans, see the letter to J. D. Hooker, [26 October 1877]. Earlier in the year, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer had written that seeds of Neptunia at Kew had failed to germinate, and that he was writing to Australia for a fresh supply (letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 16 July 1877). CD mentioned Neptunia oleracea (a synonym of N. prostrata, the sensitive neptunia or water mimosa), and the other plants, in Movement in plants.
3
CD discussed Cycas pectinata in Movement in plants; the family is now known as the Cycadaceae. CD was interested in the movement of the cotyledons and other parts of plants.
4
For Hooker’s work on Welwitschia, see J. D. Hooker 1862 and Correspondence vol. 10.
5
CD’s son-in-law, Richard Buckley Litchfield, had been taken ill with appendicitis in Switzerland in September 1877 (letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, [13 September 1877] (DAR 219.9: 155); Emma Darwin (1915) 2: 227). According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), he and his wife, Henrietta Emma Litchfield, arrived at Down on Thursday 8 November.
6
William married Sara Sedgwick on 29 (not 28) November (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)); he had originally given the date as 28 November (letter from W. E. Darwin to Emma Darwin, [21 October 1877] (DAR 210.5: 22)). Theodora was Sara’s sister.
8
Hooker visited the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah in 1877 (ODNB).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 so] interl
1.3 Mimosa] after del ‘the’
1.3 one species of 1.4] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11226,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11226