Ɛpsilon

From Thomas Whitelegge   21 May 1878

58 Hillgate St | Hurst Brook | Ashton-under-lyne

May 21/78

Dear Sir

I thank you sincerely for your two letters, and for the offer in your last.1 On Saturday afternoon I spent about an hour and a half in examining flowers of R. acris to see if I could find any with the Gynoecium aborted but after examining many hundred flowers I failed to find any. I saw a many of the small flowered females and I have planted some in our Botanical Garden.2 On Sunday last I was in the Wye Valley between Buxton and Miller’s Dale. I found some few plants of R. acris with female flowers. I may state that the object of my visit was to examine the Geum rivale (not intermedia as I supposed) to see if I could find any in the same condition as that I sent you.3 I succeeded in finding about 30 flowers with only the stamens developed some of which were on the same flower stalk along with Hermaphrodite flowers, one plant which I have before now, has 5 flowers, 4 of which are Hermaphrodite and one male. As far as my observations have gone the male flowers are not at all common.4 But I am afraid I am tresspassing too much on your time

I Remain Sir | Yours Respectfully | Thomas Whitelegg

P.S. I can forward you the plants if you desire me to do so which I would gladly do.

T.W.

CD annotations

1.4 small flowered females] underl pencil
1
Letters to Thomas Whitelegge, 28 April 1878 and 17 May 1878. CD wrote that he would add Whitelegge’s information on gynodioecious plants in the family Ranunculaceae if there were a new edition of Forms of flowers (see letter to Thomas Whitelegge, 17 May 1878 and n. 2).
2
Whitelegge probably refers to the botanical garden of the Ashton-under-Lyne Linnean Botanical Society, of which he was president (R. Desmond 1994).
3
Whitelegge had reported observing gynodioecious plants of Ranunculus acris (meadow buttercup; see letter from Thomas Whitelegge, 16 May 1878 and n. 1). In a now missing letter, Whitelegge had evidently discussed abnormalities in what he supposed was Geum intermedium (G. × intermedium is a hybrid of G. rivale (water avens) and G. urbanum (wood avens); see letter to Thomas Whitelegge, 28 April 1878).
4
In Forms of flowers, pp. 12–13, CD had noted that he was unable to identify any androdioecious species, that is, those with staminate (male) and hermaphrodite flowers on different plants.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11522,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11522