Ɛpsilon

To B. J. Sulivan   28 October [1881]1

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

Oct. 28th

My dear Sulivan.

I returned home last night & found your grapes in good condition & with a very pleasant muscat flavour. I am utterly incapable of offering any sort of explanation of the case.2 It was very kind of you to send them.

I am much in arrear with letters, so farewell— | Yours ever sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from B. J. Sulivan, 29 September 1881.
2
In his letter of 29 September 1881, Sulivan told CD he had sent samples of his two grape varieties to Joseph Dalton Hooker; he had evidently sent samples to CD at a later date. Sulivan first mentioned the grapes in November 1880, and CD had suggested that the change in colour might be an effect of direct action of the pollen on the mother plant and referred to Variation 2d ed. 1: 427–35 (see Correspondence vol. 28, letter to B. J. Sulivan, 17 November 1880 and n. 2).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13439,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13439