Ɛpsilon

To J. E. Gray   28 [June 1848]

Down Farnborough Kent

28th

Dear Gray

I will send Ranzani1 by the Carrier on Thursday (tomorrow) morning, & am very much obliged for it, though I cannot say that I have profited much by it. Do not think that I am going again to ask you a favour such as follows, for I know it must be troublesome; it is to let me have the Conchotrya & Brisnæus2 (or Brisneus?) sent me by the Carrier. The reason I want it now is that I have just been working with care at the Lithotrya & it would save me considerable trouble to finish at once with these allied or identical genera.

If you can oblige me so far, will you have them at your private Residence on Thursday morning for the Carrier.— If I dared I would ask also for Octomeris (so as to do it when I do Catophragmus),3 especially if you have one adhering to its support, so that I could get out the dry animal.— Believe me, I will not again ask thus for single genera, which I know gives you the trouble of getting down the drawers.

In truth never will a mountain in labour have brought forth such a mouse as my book on the Cirripedia: it is ridiculous the time each species takes me.

Yours most sincerely | C. Darwin

1
Ranzani 1820, cited in Living Cirripedia (1854): 5, 272, 329 and Fossil Cirripedia (1854): 10, 37.
2
Conchotrya and Brisnæus are listed as synonyms for Lythotrya (Living Cirripedia (1851): 332). The names are attributed to J. E. Gray 1825.
3
Both genera of Balanidae are described in Living Cirripedia (1854): 483–91. The synonym Octomeris stutchburii is attributed to J. E. Gray 1825.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1187,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1187