Ɛpsilon

To Francis Darwin   28 [October 1881]1

Down.

28th

My dear old Backy

I am going to amuse myself by scribbling a bit de rebus scientificibus.2 I have thought that you might like to read Fritz Muller’s letter. He has sent me seeds— Shall I sow them? By the way I have found the seeds of Dalbergia, which I accused you of losing.3 I enclose letters from Hooker & Lawes about the Worms, which I have thought you might like to see: please keep them all..—4 I have had also an interesting letter from the D. of Argyll, but it is hardly worth taking off the spit.5 The worm book is selling well: I heard yesterday that the 3d thousand is printing off & Mr Cooke writes that “it is selling like Jack Robinson”.—6 We had a very pleasant visit in Cambridge, & every body was most cordial to-wards me, but I saw too many persons & so was rather tired. Bernard was charming on our journey home & sat on my knee conversing, with an old lady, probably a grandmother, listening intently to every word he said.7

I have had a long letter from Pfeffer (with his photograph) which I have despatched to Camilla to translate; as we cd only make out that he wd. not go on working on the movements of plants., if I intended to do so!!!.—8 I had a very long talk with Vines (& liked him much). He is not inclined to trust much in Wiesner & says he is finical in his experiments & strongly inclined to oppose everyone. When I told him how I had been vivisected (& recommended him strongly to get Wiesners new book) I saw clearly that he was determined if possible to believe in us.9

I discussed with L. Raleigh, George & Horace how to retry some of our experiments, & if you are inclined to try some of them again, I can explain my notions.—10 I feel pretty sure that Wiesner ⁠⟨⁠is⁠⟩⁠ wrong in some cases. Some of his views seem to me mere words, such as leaves being at the same time heliotropic & apheliotropic.—11 By the way Vines was very much surprised at the behaviour of the roots of Euphorbia when exposed to C. of Ammonia.— He was astonished at the contents of the alternate rows of cells differing in their nature.— He evidently thought the subject worth pursuing. As far as I can yet make out the phenomenon has no connection with the milky juice.—12

Can you tell me where I can read about the vessels with milky juice? You told me about the tubes going up & down in a marvellous manner.13 I have written a very long & cordial letter to Wiesner.—14 Dr King of Calcutta says he has despatched a very good specimen in spirits of Dischidia Rafflesiana—which makes pitchers, which catch & drown many ants,, like a Nepenthes. It is a climbing plant like ivy & the strange fact is that it always sends roots from its own stem into its own pitchers into the putrid water.—15 I have written to Hooker to know whether he knows of anyone who wd be capable of well histo-logising the pitchers; but possibly you might like to undertake the job—16

What a splendid fisher-man you have become.— Your fish was capital eating17

Goodbye— I am tired | your affectionate Father | C. Darwin

P.S. There has just arrived an Italian pamphlet for you by Dr. Solla

“La Luce e le Piante”—18

Another letter from Dr Hooker who says why does not Frank undertake Dischidia? He says for years he has wished to see the plant alive, but no one can grow it here.— He has again written to Singapore.19

1
The month and year are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. D. Hooker, 27 October 1881.
2
De rebus scientificibus: ‘on scientific things’ (Latin).
3
See letter from Fritz Müller, 9 and 10 August 1881 and n. 2. Müller had sent seeds of Oxalis sepium with that letter, but CD had already sown some seeds by mid September 1881 (DAR 67: 93). It is unclear whether CD refers to that letter, or the letter from Fritz Müller, 6, 7, and 9 September 1881, which is the most recent extant letter but does not mention seeds, or to a now missing letter in which Müller may have enclosed other seeds. Dalbergia is a genus in the legume family (Fabaceae).
4
CD may have sent the letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 October 1881], in which Hooker mentions reading Earthworms. No letter from John Bennet Lawes has been found, but Lawes was on CD’s presentation list for the book (see Appendix IV).
5
No letter from George Douglas Campbell, eighth duke of Argyll, has been found, but he was also on CD’s presentation list for Earthworms (see Appendix IV). CD put letters unrelated to his current work on spits (Calendar 1: 2).
7
The Darwins and Francis’s son Bernard Darwin had visited Horace Darwin and his wife, Ida, in Cambridge from 20 to 27 October 1881 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
8
See letter from Wilhelm Pfeffer, 24 October 1881. Camilla Pattrick, a former governess with the Darwin family, had translated German works for CD before Francis became CD’s assistant. Francis was in Wales, visiting his deceased wife’s family (letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, [9 October 1881] (DAR 219.9: 275)).
9
Sydney Howard Vines was a fellow of CD’s former Cambridge college, Christ’s. Like Francis, Vines had studied at Würzburg with Julius Sachs, and at Straßburg (Strasbourg) with Anton de Bary (ODNB). He was commenting on Julius Wiesner’s critique of Movement in plants (Wiesner 1881).
10
John William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh, was professor of experimental physics at Cambridge, and a friend of George Howard Darwin and Horace Darwin. In his book, Wiesner had been critical of some of CD’s experimental protocols, claiming the results in such cases were an artefact of the errors in CD’s methodology (see, for example, Wiesner 1881, pp. 158–62).
11
See Wiesner 1881, pp. 57–9.
12
CD had begun experimenting on the action of carbonate of ammonia (ammonium carbonate; (NH4)2CO3) on the roots of some species of Euphorbia, notably E. peplus (petty spurge) and E. myrsinites (myrtle spurge). Notes on these species, dated from 28 July to 14 November 1881, are in DAR 62: 2–5, 36–41. One observation that CD mentioned in his letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 October 1881, was that alternate rows of cells in the fibrous roots reacted differently to immersion in a solution of the chemical, even though they did not appear to differ in external appearance. CD reported his results in ‘Action of carbonate of ammonia on roots’.
13
No letter from Francis discussing the laticiferous ducts in Euphorbia has been found. CD hypothesised that there might be a relation between the formation of granules in the cells of roots exposed to carbonate of ammonia and the presence of such vessels or ducts, but eventually concluded this was not the case (see ‘Action of carbonate of ammonia on roots’, p. 245).
15
See letter from George King, 13 September 1881 and n. 1. Dischidia rafflesiana (a synonym of D. major) is now known as the ant plant. Nepenthes is a large genus of tropical pitcher-plants. The observation about the roots growing in the pitchers of D. rafflesiana had been published in Griffith 1846, p. 388 (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 27 October 1881 and n. 3).
17
Francis had sent home a salmon he caught while fishing in Wales (see letter from Francis Darwin, [21 October 1881]).
18
There is a copy of Ruggero Felice Solla’s paper ‘La Luce e le piante’ (Light and plants; Solla 1880) in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.1 retry] above del ‘retry’
3.4 leaves] above del ‘leaves’
3.6 the contents of] interl
3.7 nature] above del ‘contents’
4.3 very good] interl
4.4 & drown 4.5] interl
4.8 well] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13440,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13440