Ɛpsilon

From George King   13 September 1881

Botanical Garden | Calcutta

13 Sept 1881

My Dear Sir,

As you may possibly not have seen a good specimen of the pitchers of Dischidia Rafflesiana Wall, and as I think they may interest you, I have taken the liberty to send * you a very good one which was sent to this garden some time ago from Eastern Bengal.1 The specimen is in a jar of spirit safely cased in a soldered tin box, over which there is a wooden cover: So I hope it may reach you safely

I have never had an opportunity of seeing this curious plant in a wild state. On several occasions living plants have been sent to the Garden, but although poor John Scott and myself did all we knew to get them to live, we never succeeded in keeping one alive more than a few weeks.2 I have therefore had no opportunity of making any observations on the use of the pitchers to the plant and to the ants which (in this garden at least) always infested them.

Wallich figures the plant in his Pl. Asiat. Rariores and, by book post, I send you a copy of his figure, while I herewith enclose an extract from his description—3 I am sorry I can now add nothing to the latter, but someday I may have the good fortune to observe the plant growing wild:

Believe me to be | Yrs sincerely | George King

*by Overland parcel post

1
King was superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta (Kolkata). Dischidia rafflesiana (a synonym of D. major) was first described by Nathaniel Wallich (see n. 3, below). It later became known as the ant plant because ants nest in its hollow leaves.
2
John Scott had been the curator of the Calcutta Botanic Garden until 1879.
3
Wallich had illustrated and described Dischidia rafflesiana in Plantae Asiaticae rariores (Wallich 1830–2, 2: 35–6 and plate 142). The figure and extract sent by King has not been found.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13336,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13336