Ɛpsilon

To Hugo de Vries   [18 October 1881]1

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

My dear Sir

I am delighted to hear that you intend working on the causes of variation.—2 It is a grand subject, & if I were not so old, I would take it up experimentally. But I am nearly worn out, & will not attempt writing on any difficult & complex subject again.— I fear that I have fallen into many mistakes in my work on the Power of movement in Plants, & this ought to be a caution to me.—3 With hearty thanks for your kind letter & good wishes for your success in all your scientific undertakings

I remain | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The date is established by an annotation at the top of the letter in an unknown hand and by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Hugo de Vries, 15 October 1881.
3
CD had been reading a book that critiqued the results of experiments in Movement in plants (Wiesner 1881). See letter to Francis Darwin, 17 October 1881.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13415F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13415F