Ɛpsilon

To R. D. Fitzgerald   9 February 1881

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

Feb. 9th 1881

Dear Sir

I received a few weeks ago your kind note dated Nov. 20th & this morning Part 6. of your magnificent work on Orchids.—1 I have read your account of Calæna & most curious it is; but I have as yet looked only at the other Plates. Your account of Calæna reminds me of the case of the Fly Ophrys in Europe; only here when fertilisation does occur it is cross-fertilisation.2 You will think me a bigot but I cannot avoid the belief that it may prove to be so with Calæna. It is, however, now evident that there is more self-fertilisation with the Orchideæ than I had supposed. From my experiments on the effects of self-fertilising & crossing, I imagine that a species could endure for a very long period self-fertilisation, unless it were subjected to very severe competition with other plants.—3

Should you on further consideration desire to dedicate your truly magnificent work to me, I can assure you that I shall feel greatly honoured.—4

Believe me, my dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

P.S. I am always inclined to believe that every detail of structure has a meaning, but it would, I suppose, puzzle any one to conjecture the meaning of the wonderfully elongated divisions of the perianth of Sarcochilus Divitiflorus, as shown in your last Plate.—5

1
Fitzgerald’s letter has not been found; he had sent CD the sixth part (dated July 1880) of his work Australian orchids (R. D. Fitzgerald 1875–94). CD had received the first part in 1875 (see Correspondence vol. 23, letter to R. D. Fitzgerald, 16 July 1875 and n. 1). CD’s copies of the parts of this work are in the Darwin Library–CUL.
2
Fitzgerald had concluded from his observations that the Australian orchid genus Caleana, whose structure seemed to preclude insect pollination, reproduced through self-fertilisation; he also stated that whatever the mechanism, the flowers were seldom fertilised (R. D. Fitzgerald 1875–94, 1: part 6, opposite the plate illustrating Caleana major and Caleana minor). In Orchids 2d ed., pp. 45–9, CD stated that the fly ophrys (Ophrys muscifera), though rarely visited by insects, was most likely cross-fertilised by them; he wondered, however, why the plant produced so many flowers when so few were fertilised. He concluded that it seemed that something was ‘out of order in its mechanism or in its conditions’ (ibid., p. 49).
3
The results of CD’s experiments on this subject had been published in Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 285–91.
4
Fitzgerald’s first volume, comprising the first seven parts of Australian orchids, was published in 1882 after CD’s death; it was dedicated ‘to the memory of the late Charles Darwin, as a token of the veneration in which that great naturalist and fearless expounder of science is held’.
5
In his description of Sarcochilus divitiflorus (a synonym of Rhinerrhiza divitiflora), Fitzgerald noted that it was very distinct from other Australian members of the genus (R. D. Fitzgerald 1875–94, 1: part 6, opposite the plate illustrating Sarcochilus divitiflorus). It is now the only species in the genus Rhinerrhiza.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.6 now] interl
1.9 very] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13045,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13045