Ɛpsilon

From Thomas Whitelegge   15 July 1878

58 Hillgate St | Hurst Brook | Ashton. u. Lyne

July 15/78

Dear Sir

I enclose with this note Speciemens of Stachys Germanica. Linn. with small female flowers and ordinary Hermaphrodite ones.1 I have examined some of the flowers and I find that the stamens are very much reduced appearing like small scale like processes. I am not aware that this species has been described in this condition. They have been grown in our little Botanic Garden, seed came from Kew2

Since I sent you Ranunculus repens, I have found R. bulbosus in a Gynodioecious condition at Millers Dale Derbyshire on the 8th of June3 Just one word about R. acris4 While staying at Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire I saw the plant in abundance but failed to find any with small flowers which struck me as being very remarkable as they are so very abundant about our district. Hoping I am not tresspassing to much on your valueable time, I remain | Dear Sir Yours Truly | Thomas Whitelegge

1
CD listed Stachys germanica (downy woundwort) as a gynodioecious plant on Whitelegge’s authority in Forms of flowers 2d ed., p. xvii.
2
Whitelegge was president of the Ashton-under-Lyne Linnean Botanical Society, which had been founded by working men (R. Desmond 1994). The garden probably belonged to the society.
3
See letter from Thomas Whitelegge, 27 May 1878. Ranunculus repens is the creeping buttercup; R. bulbosus is the bulbous buttercup.
4
Whitelegge had sent CD gynodioecious specimens of Ranunculus acris (meadow buttercup) from Northenden, near Manchester, in May (letter from Thomas Whitelegge, 16 May 1878). He later reported on ‘small flowered females’ of R. acris from Derbyshire (letter from Thomas Whitelegge, 21 May 1878).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11609,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11609