From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 30 December 1878
Royal Gardens Kew
Dec 30. 78
Dear Mr Darwin
At the risk of being troublesome I forward you a good specimen of Commelyna bengalensis, Roxb. which ⟨devel⟩opes flowers and ⟨sets⟩ seed under ground.1 ⟨It⟩ comes to me from ⟨ ⟩ Duthie of the Saharunpore Botanic Garden2
Believe me | Yours very truly | W. T. Thiselton Dyer
CD note:
Subterranean seeds & Flowers of Commelina5
Commelina benghalensis (Commelyna bengalensis is a misspelling) is the Benghal dayflower. It has large open flowers and small unopened (cleistogamous) flowers, both of which produce large and small seeds (Hayden and Fagan 2016, p. 459). For CD’s interest in the development of seeds underground, see letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 31 January [1878] and n. 3.
John Firminger Duthie was superintendent of Saharanpur Botanic Garden (India list 1905).
The text of the enclosure has been written on the outside of a folded sheet containing plant material. Robert Wight described the underground flowers of Commelyna bengalensis (Linn.) in his Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis (Wight 1840–53, 6: 29, no. 2065).
Dehra Dun (Dehradun) is a district in Uttarakhand state, in the foothills of the Himalayas in north central India, a tea-growing region.
The note is written on an envelope that was presumably used by CD to contain the enclosure.
Manuscript Alterations and Comments
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11811,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on