Ɛpsilon

To R. F. Cooke   23 April [1880]1

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

Ap. 23rd

My dear Sir

I shall send my M.S to Printers in about a month’s time, so I must settle about title.— My family shake their heads in the same dismal manner as you & Mr. Murray did, when I told them my proposed title of “The Circumnutating Movements of Plants.”2

Now will you kindly consider the following point. My book with title of “The Movements & Habits of Climbing Plants” is generally known, as merely “Climbing Plants” & is so lettered outside. Would it not be permissible under these circumstances to entitle the new book simply as

“The Movements of Plants”.—

This would be a quite correct title.—

Or I might put

“The Nature of the Movements of Plants”

but I do not like this so well.

One of my sons suggested

“A contribution to the Physiology of Plants:

Movements of Plants.”3

Do kindly give me your aid & believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from R. F. Cooke, 27 April 1880.
2
John Murray was CD’s publisher; Movement in plants was published on 6 November 1880 (Freeman 1977).
3
CD refers to the title as it appears on the spine of Climbing plants 2d ed. The son mentioned was probably Francis Darwin, who had assisted CD in the research for Movement in plants.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 them] above del ‘you’
2.2 as] over ‘&’
4.1 put] after del ‘pt’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12588,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12588