Ɛpsilon

To Wilhelm Dunker   3 March [1850]1

Down Farnborough Kent

March 3d

Sir

I hope that you will forgive the very great liberty I take in addressing you.— I have been for some time employed on a monograph on recent & fossil Cirripedia.2 I applied to my friend Mr. J. Morris to know to whom I could apply for any fossil specimens from Germany, & he tells me that you of all others are most likely to be willing & able to help a stranger.—3

Owing to the kindness of Prof. Steenstrup of Copenhagen I have the loan of your Pollicipes Hausmanni (& I know your perfectly accurate drawings & descriptions) & of P. Bronnii & P. carinatus of Philippi, but I am most curious to see the species described by Roemer, viz P. uncinatus, gracilis glaber, asper &c &c &c; or any undescribed specimens.—4 Can you aid me with regard to Roemer’s species? I would carefully return them & pay carriage both ways as far as may be possible.— As my name will probably be unknown to you, I may mention, as a proof that I am devoted to Natural History, that I went as Naturalist on the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the World & collected in all branches of Nat. History.

I trust to your kindness to forgive my intruding myself on you, & beg to remain, with much respect | Sir | Your faithful servant | Charles Darwin

Any parcel ought to be directed to C. Darwin Esq., | 7 Park St., Grosvenor Sq., | London.5

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to W. B. R. H. Dunker, 20 September 1850 (Correspondence vol. 4).
2
CD began the work that resulted in the publication of Fossil Cirripedia (1851) and (1854), and Living Cirripedia (1851) and (1854) in 1846 (Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix II).
3
The correspondence with John Morris has not been found.
4
Japetus Steenstrup. CD cited Friedrich Karl Ludwig Koch and Dunker’s descriptions and drawings of Pollicipes hausmanni (a synonym of Martillepas hausmanni; Koch and Dunker 1837, pp. 52–3 and tab. 6, fig. 6) in Fossil Cirripedia (1851), p. 53. He described P. bronnii in ibid., pp. 77–8. He described P. carinatus in ibid., p. 60, crediting Rudolph Amandus Philippi for sending him specimens. He mentioned P. uncinatus (a synonym of Cretiscalpellum glabrum) in ibid., pp. 75 and 80, P. gracilis in ibid., p. 69, and P. glaber (a synonym of Cretiscalpellum glabrum) in ibid., pp. 61–4, crediting Friedrich Adolph Roemer with sending him specimens.
5
Seven Park Street was at this time the house of CD’s brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin (see Correspondence vol. 3, letter to J. D. Forbes, 13 [November 1844]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 the loan of] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1306F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1306F