Ɛpsilon

To R. F. Cooke   11 December [1877]1

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

Dec. 11th

My dear Sir

I will send today the corrected sheets of Cross Fert: to Messrs Clowes. I think the pages up to 370 need not be broken, but the last 100 pages will have to be repaged & the index a little altered.2

By my Memoranda 2000 copies have been printed, but I do not know whether it is worth while to put “Third Thousandth” on title page.3 Do you think it is?? By the way, & in order that my error may be corrected if I am wrong, I have not been paid for the last 500 printed in July; I was paid in March 140£ for the 1500 first sold.— But pray tell Mr. Murray that I am not in the least hurry about payment.4

How many copies shall you have printed of new Edit. of Cross-Fertilisation? Please tell me, when you have decided.5

I must have a copy.

Please send me soon sheets of “Different Forms of Flowers” that I may keep ready for whenever I must correct for new Edit. I was quite right to delay, for since you proposed to stereotype I have had 3 or 4 important communications on the subject.6

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from R. F. Cooke, 13 December 1877.
2
William Clowes & Sons were printers to John Murray, CD’s publisher. The first edition of Cross and self fertilisation was published on 10 November 1876 (Freeman 1977). A long footnote at the bottom of page 370 of Cross and self fertilisation 2d ed. necessitated the resetting of the rest of the book (see letter from A. W. Rimpau, 10 December 1877 and n. 1).
3
Only ‘Second Edition’ appears on the title page of Cross and self fertilisation 2d ed.
5
No copies of Cross and self fertilisation 2d ed. were printed until some time after February 1878 (see Correspondence vol. 26, letter from R. F. Cooke, 26 February 1878).
6
In Forms of flowers 2d ed., pp. v–xii, CD added a preface in which he noted all the new information he had received since the publication of the first edition.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 up] after del ‘for’
2.1 Memoranda] above del ‘notes’
2.3 my] after del ‘I’
2.4 in March] interl
2.4 140£] ‘£’ added above ‘140’
5.3 or 4] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11276,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11276