Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   18 September [1881]1

Down Beckenham

Sept. 18th

My dear Hooker.

Frank has searched the bank for Herminium, but it is quite out of all possibility to find such plants amidst the surrounding vegetation. It is not easy to see them even when in full flower. We could get plants for the Comte next summer.—2

I have written to Senr. Furtado to send his mountain plants from St. Michele in the Azores to you & have asked him whether he wants a list of the names.— I have told him about the buried cypresses, of which I had never heard.—3

You must be fearfully busy with your right-hand man away.4

Ever yours | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. D. Hooker, 7 September 1881.
2
Francis Darwin was searching ‘Orchis Bank’ (the Darwin family name for Downe Bank) for the tiny Herminium monorchis (musk orchid) to send to Louis-Philippe-Albert d’Orléans, comte de Paris (see letter from J. D. Hooker. 7 September 1881).
4
William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, the assistant director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was on holiday (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 7 September 1881).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 all] after del ‘the’
1.2 them] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13342,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13342