Ɛpsilon

To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   25 June [1878]1

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

June 25th

My dear Dyer

I shd. be greatly obliged if you could tell me the name of genus & nearest species of enclosed leaf. It was given to my gardener by another gardener as a Caladium.2 It has never flowered with me: all the leaves are like the enclosed, but somewhat larger & they rise from a great conical stock or corm or tuber.— I enclose addressed card & you need only write name (if leaf can be recognised) at back.—

I want to know name, because the leaf moves so much at night from horizontal to 69° below horizon, that it deserves to be said to sleep, & monocot. sleepers are rare.—3

yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the postcard from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [27 June 1878].
2
CD’s gardener was Henry Lettington; the other gardener has not been identified. Caladium is a genus of flowering plants native to Central and South America; they belong to the family Araceae (arums).
3
CD’s experimental notes on the sleep of Caladium esculentum are in DAR 209.14: 15–18; see also Movement of plants, pp. 390–1.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.4 corm] above del ‘corm’
2.2 69°] after del ‘4’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11565,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11565