Ɛpsilon

To J. V. Carus   14 September 1880

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

Sept. 14th 1880

My dear Sir

I send by this Post the 2 first sheets of my book—“The Power of Movement in Plants”—for translation, if you think fit.1

As I believe I said before, the work appears to me to possess some value & novelty; but it is very dull.— You must not,, however, judge of it by the first long chapter, which contains mere descriptions of cases of nearly the same nature; but it seemed to me necessary to establish securely my first point.—

There are 195 wood-cuts, & if, as I hope, you decide to translate I will get them stereotyped at as little cost as I can.—2

Please let me hear what you decide; but perhaps you would wish first to see more of the sheets.—

I most truly hope that your health keeps moderately good | Believe me, my dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
CD had promised to send the proof-sheets of Movement in plants to Carus (see letter to J. V. Carus, 28 April 1880).
2
The first chapter was 56 pages long and described the circumnutating movements of seedling plants; Movement in plants contained 196 woodcuts.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
2.4 securely] interl
4.1 first] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12713,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12713