Ɛpsilon

To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   9 July [1879]1

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

July 9th

My dear Dyer

The tendrils are very curious; I have seen something of the kind though not so well marked. How pretty are the affinities of plants, when I glanced at the tendrils, I said that they must belong to some Cucurbitaceous plant, though I knew no more than the man in the moon what Hodgsonia was.—2 The little white transparent flakes which project from the sides of the tendrils, here & there, where they have been in contact, & which look like flakes of dry gum, are I find under the microscope cellular outgrowths.

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the placement of the letter within Thiselton-Dyer’s correspondence in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
2
No other correspondence relating to Hodgsonia (a genus of vines in the family Cucurbitaceae) has been found.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 are] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12141,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12141