To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   25 January [1879]1

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

Jan 25th

My dear Dyer

Your letter, like so many previous ones, is most useful to me. I am perplexed about Ox. tropæoloides, for in structure & movement the cotyledons differ from those of O. corniculata var. atropurpurea, which I have carefully observed.—2 I hope that I may succeed in raising some plants.—

It is a shame that you shd. have had trouble to write about Drosophyllum.3 Thanks for Darlingtonia; I hope it will not be injured by frost, which stops nearly all our experimental work.4

I will bear in mind what you say, about notes on Geograph Distribution; but trying to make out something new is so much more interesting than compiling old notes.5

We much enjoyed your visit here.6 I must to work

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Dyer

Oxalis colorata ) seeds from Kew

— articulata)

are these closely allied to O. rosea? &, are they American species?7

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 27 January 1879.
2
For Oxalis tropaeoloides and Oxalis corniculata var. atropurpurea, see the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [20 January 1879] and n. 2. The name Oxalis tropaeoloides is also sometimes associated with the horticultural variety Oxalis corniculata var. repens, so CD’s seeds may have been of this variety.
3
The reference has not been identified; the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [20 January 1879], is incomplete. Drosophyllum is a genus of carnivorous plants containing a single species, D. lusitanicum (Portuguese sundew or dewy pine).
4
In Movement in plants, p. 450 n., CD commented that although one researcher had found the leaves of Darlingtonia californica (California pitcher-plants) to be strongly apheliotropic, he and Francis Darwin had not found this movement in a plant that they possessed for a short time.
6
Thiselton-Dyer and his wife, Harriet Anne, visited Down on 18 January 1879 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
7
This query appears on a separate sheet of paper, along with other queries that CD crossed out, evidently as having been sufficiently dealt with in this letter or the letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [20 January 1879]. The other queries are as follows: ‘Ox. tropæoloides, (seeds from Carter) can you tell me anything about affinities & habitat of this species | T or Filocereus Houtletianum leucocephalus,—(from Kew) what must I call this? | Seeds of Drosophyllum | Darlingtonia. specimen’. James Carter & Company were London seed merchants. Pilocereus houlletianum is a synonym of P. arrabidae. CD used the name Pilocereus Houlletii (an unresolved name) in Movement in plants, p. 97. Darlingtonia is the monospecific genus of the California pitcher-plant.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 nearly] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11845,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11845