Ɛpsilon

To T. H. Farrer   8 May [1878]1

From Mr. C. Darwin. [Bassett, Southampton.]

May 8th

Thanks for another & much better lot of specimens of the Ledum.—2 I doubt whether case worth labour of investigation. The glands probably serve, in accordance with Kerner’s view, merely to protect the flowers from crawling insects, which would not cross-fertilise them.—3

C.D.

ApcS

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from T. H. Farrer, 4 May 1878.
2
See letter from T. H. Farrer, 4 May 1878 and n. 1. CD initially thought the plant would be worth investigating to determine whether it was insectivorous (letter to T. H. Farrer, 7 May [1878]). The genus Ledum has been subsumed within the genus Rhododendron; leaves of many species of Ledum have insecticidal properties.
3
Anton Kerner had mentioned that access to the flowers of Ledum palustre was impeded by sticky secretions from the epidermis of the bracts (see Kerner 1876, p. 215).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Mr. C. Darwin] ‘Mr.’ altered from ‘Mrs.’; before del ‘Down, Beckenham, Kent.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11496,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11496