Ɛpsilon

To Asa Gray   24 March [1880]1

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

March 24th

My dear Gray

I thank you much for the 2 seeds of Megarrhiza: I hope that they may germinate for I shd. very much like to see a longitudinal section & the proportion of the parts, when the (apparent) root is only 12 or 13 of inch out of the seed-coats.2

You must not suppose that what is obvious to you is so to me; for as the confluent petioles of the Cots. of the Delphinium are not tubular at first, I was astonished to see the young leaves coming out of a hole or slit at their base.3

Very many thanks for all your information about the Megarrhiza, the germination of which has interested me greatly.—4

I was much amused by your little article on the Philadelphia lawyer. You are a first-rate hand in touching up a fool.—5 The lawyer is a cool man in trying to make me out a rogue; but this seems the fashion & according to Mr S. Butler in the Athenæum I am a rogue of the deepest dye, because I forgot to state that Dr Krause had altered his article on Erasmus Darwin before sending it to England for translation.6

Ever yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Asa Gray, 11 March 1880.
2
Gray had sent seeds of Megarrhiza with his letter of 11 March 1880.
3
Delphinium nudicaule (red larkspur); see letter from Asa Gray, 11 March 1880 and n. 2.
5
Gray’s anonymous review of T. Warren O’Neill’s Refutation of Darwinism (O’Neill 1880) appeared in the Nation, 4 March 1880, p. 182; see letter from Asa Gray, 11 March 1880 and n. 3.
6
Samuel Butler published a letter in the Athenæum, 31 January 1880, p. 185 (see letter to H. E. Litchfield, 1 February [1880], enclosure 1), comparing Ernst Krause’s original German essay on Erasmus Darwin (Krause 1879a) with the translated version for Erasmus Darwin. Butler suggested that some of the new material made critical reference to Butler 1879 and blamed CD for not acknowledging its target.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 (apparent)] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12545,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12545