Ɛpsilon

To Hyacinth Hooker   10 October [1880]

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

Oct 10th

My dear Lady Hooker

I am very much obliged for your kind present of the Bananas.—1 The orange-brown ones are the most splendid, aristocratic specimens, I have ever seen.

Believe me | yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin

Endorsement: ‘/80’

1
CD enjoyed eating bananas and regularly received samples of the varieties grown at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as gifts from Hyacinth and Joseph Dalton Hooker (see Correspondence vol. 25, letter to Hyacinth Hooker, [18 November 1877]). At this time, bananas were rare and expensive (Endersby 2007, pp. 170–1).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12750,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12750