Ɛpsilon

To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer   3 April [1881]1

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

Ap. 3d.

My dear Dyer

One line to thank you for the flowers received this morning. George has made a drawing of Monochætum & I have dissected all the flowers, & my notes have become intelligible to me.—2 So many thanks

Ever yours | Charles Darwin

P.S. | On receiving Oliver’s memorandum I write at once to Thompson for seeds of Celsia Cretica & he has none!3 could you send me any seed of any rather large-flowered sp. of Celsia for fertilising.4

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 1 April 1881.
2
See letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 1 April 1881 and n. 2. George Howard Darwin’s drawing of the sexual parts of Monochaetum ensiferum (a synonym of M. calcaratum), dated 2 April 1881, and CD’s own diagram and notes on their structure, dated 3 April 1881, are in DAR 205.8: 42–3.
3
No such memorandum from Daniel Oliver has been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL. CD’s letter to William Thompson requesting seeds of Celsia cretica (a synonym of Verbascum creticum, Cretan mullein), and Thompson’s reply have not been found. In 1862, CD had investigated two species of mullein, Verbascum thapsus (great mullein) and V. lychnitis (white mullein); his notes, dated between 28 June and 16 October 1862, are in DAR 108: 2–4.
4
In a memorandum attached to this letter in the archive of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Thiselton-Dyer wrote to John Smith, requesting that he send CD flowers of all the Melastomaceae in bloom at Kew, especially Monochaetum. A notation by Smith records that the flowers were sent on 2 April 1881. In a second notation, dated 6 April 1881, Smith recorded the dispatch of seeds of Celsia cretica and Celsia arcturus (a synonym of Verbascum arcturus, a species also known as Cretan mullein, endemic to western Crete).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
3.2 he] interl
3.3 of Celsia] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13106,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13106