To Albany Hancock   [31 March or 7 April 1850]1

Down Farnborough Kent

Sunday

My dear Sir

I send one line to beg you to keep my M.S. as long as ever you like.2 I guessed why you did not write; it was wholly unimportant. I am sorry for the smash; & sorrier the species do not turn out more interesting: it is, however, as you say curious about the Ranges.—3 The Balanus sent (for which many thanks) is the common B. cranchii4 of Brit. Authors; I have never seen it from north of Tenby in S. Wales— I will return it hereafter, if required.— I shd be very glad to see the Greenland Balanus;5 please state when sent whether to be returned; you know I must disarticulate a specimen for examination.

Have you several specimens of the Madeira little pedunc: cirripede (which I named Machairis & have now changed into Oxynaspis)6 & if so, & wd lend or give me one for disarticulation, I shd be very glad, as my specimens are all in utter state of decay & several points of dryed animal remain unexamined by me.— (I have this genus fossil from Chalk.) I mean now to continue at Systematic Part till I have finished,—a period which will arrive, Heaven only knows when.—

Many thanks for your letter In Haste | Yours truly | C. Darwin

1
The conjectured date is based on CD’s request for a specimen of Oxynaspis celata, which was evidently received by CD before his letter to Albany Hancock, 15 [April 1850].
2
See letter to Albany Hancock, [26 January – March 1850], in which CD stated he was sending to Hancock his specimens and notes on Mollusca.
3
One of CD’s nudibranch molluscs is mentioned in Alder and Hancock 1845–55, pt 6, under the description of Thecacera. The geographical distribution is described in ibid., pt 7, pp. 27–32. There is a copy of the work in the Darwin Library–CUL.
4
A synonym for Balanus perforatus (Living Cirripedia (1854): 231).
5
Possibly Balanus balanoides (Living Cirripedia (1854): 267).
6
Living Cirripedia (1851): 133. See also letter to J. J. S. Steenstrup, 3 April [1850].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 out] added
1.8 a] interl
2.2 named] before omitted point
2.4 of dryed animal] interl
2.4 (I have this genus fossil from Chalk.) 2.5] added
2.6 arrive,] after del illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1316,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1316