Ɛpsilon

To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   21 February [1879]1

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

Feb 21st

Dear Dyer

In an old note of yours Dec. 1873, which I have just reread, you speak of Duchartre Eléments de Botanique, as containing much on sleep of Plants & on that of Cassia.2 I have seen it elswhere referred to on this subject. If it is your own, will you lend it me for short time: if it belongs to your public Library, will or can Hooker break rules & lend it me for short time, as I grudge buying it for the chance of its being useful & what is worse there wd be much delay in getting it.3

If you cannot lend it, please send me a card, that I may order a copy instantly—

I am overwhelmed with my notes & almost too old to undertake the job which I have in Hand—ie movements of all kinds.4 Yet it is worse to be idle

Ever yours | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 25 [February 1879].
2
CD’s undated notes on Pierre Etienne Simon Duchartre’s Éléments de botanique: comprenant l’anatomie, l’organographie, la physiologie des plantes, les familles naturelles et la géographie botanique (Elements of botany: including anatomy, organography, plant physiology, natural families and botanical geography; Duchartre 1867) are in DAR 209.14: 171. They cover the discussion of sleep in the leaves of several species, including Cassia floribunda (a synonym of Senna floribunda), in Duchartre 1867, pp. 347–54. The December 1873 letter in which Thiselton-Dyer discussed Duchartre is missing; see, however, Correspondence vol. 21, letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 6 December 1873, and letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 22 December 1873.
3
Joseph Dalton Hooker was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the ‘Public Library’ was the collection of books belonging to the gardens. The books were not borrowable.
4
CD was beginning to write up his chapters on sleep in plants (Movement in plants, pp. 280–417); see letter to Francis Darwin, 21 February [1879].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 & … Cassia. 1.3] interl
1.4 or can] interl
1.5 of its being useful 1.6] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11895,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11895