Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   30 October 1881

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

Oct 30th 81

My dear Hooker

Very many thanks for your two notes. I am glad that you approve of the “Diet of Worms”.1 When in old days I used to tell you whatever I was doing, if you were at all interested, I always felt as most men do when their work is finally published.— I have also been very glad to hear the great news about your new villa.2 Alas this will make it more difficult than ever to see you here.

Now about the plants: the Drosophyllum & Sarracenia arrived in perfect condition & they are such splendid specimens, that if they had been mine, I could not have endured to have lent them, if father, mother, wife & child had all supplicated me.— I must cut a wedge-like section of the earth in which Drosophyllum grows to get some of its roots,, but I hope this will not kill it; & cut off 2 or 3 leaves.3 With respect to Euphorbiaceæ, I care not what the plants are, so that they belong to 3 or 4 very distinct genera; not Euphorbia or Phyllanthus.4 Small, youngish plants named & marked greenhouse or hothouse wd be best, as it is the roots which I have to examine. I spoke to Vines, about the case, & he knows nothing at all like it. Why the contents of the cells in the alternate rows in every rootlet on the whole plant shd. differ conspicuously, after certain reagents, passes my comprehension; so that the subject seems worth pursuing.5 I shall look to roots of Nettles & Box as somewhat allied to the Euphorbiaceæ.6

Farewell | C. Darwin

Dr King says that he cannot keep the Dischidia alive in Calcutta!7

Please mark “to be returned” any at all valuable Euphorbiacaeous plant which is sent here, if I do not kill it.

1
See letters from J. D. Hooker, [23 October 1881] and 27 October 1881. Hooker had praised Earthworms, jokingly referring to it as the ‘diet of Worms’ (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 October 1881] and n. 2).
2
Hooker had recently bought land in Sunningdale, Berkshire, where he planned to build a country home (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 October 1881] and n. 5).
3
See letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 October 1881 and n. 10. Drosophyllum is the monotypic genus of Portuguese sundew or dewy pine. Sarracenia is the genus of trumpet pitchers native to North America.
4
Hooker had asked CD to specify which plants of the family Euphorbiaceae he wanted (letter from J. D. Hooker, 27 October 1881). CD had already told Hooker he did not need plants of Euphorbia (the genus of spurges) or Phyllanthus (the genus of leaf flower; see letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 October 1881 and n. 10).
5
CD had met with Sydney Howard Vines during his visit to Cambridge from 20 to 27 October 1881 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). For more on CD’s experiments on the action of carbonate of ammonia on the roots of some species of Euphorbia, see the letter to Francis Darwin, 28 [October 1881] and n. 12.
6
Common nettle (Urtica dioica) is not related to the Euphorbiaceae, but CD probably intended spurge nettle (Cnidoscolus urens var. stimulosus). Common box is Buxus sempervirens; CD probably consulted Lindley 1853, in which Buxus is classified within the Euphorbiaceae, along with Cnidoscolus.
7
See letter from George King, 13 September 1881. King had sent CD a copy of the figure and description of Dischidia rafflesiana (a synonym of D. major) by Nathaniel Wallich (Wallich 1830–2, 2: 35–6 and plate 142).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
2.4 wedge-like] interl
2.5 some of] interl
2.5 & cut … leaves.] added; ‘&’ over ‘—’
2.8 named … hothouse] interl
2.10 rootlet on] ‘on’ after del ‘shd’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13442,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13442